Betwixt and Between
by Xangelic-demonicX
Summary: To Zexion, love is a foreign emotion. To Xion, Zexion is a foreign existence. When Xion is stripped of her humanity and pulled into a world of darkness and forbidden romance, what will become of the two? -XionXZexion- Please R&R! Disclaimer: don't own KH.
1. Cynical Views

Chapter 1 ~ Cynical Views

I never liked my life. But you know, you really don't know what you have until it gets taken away from you.

The name's Ino Koubuki. I'm one of those geeky high-school students that no one likes. I have exceptional grades in fact, I'm number 1 in every single class. I suck up all the teachers properly just like a student should, not that I cared about what they thought of me.

Friend count: 0. There's not a single person in this world that cares about me in the slightest, again, not that I cared what they thought of me. Idiots, the lot of them.

Family matters have always been troublesome for me. My mom and dad argue constantly, and when I suggest having a divorce, they both look at me like I'm an idiot and stop talking for a week. I honestly don't know why, I mean, I think it's a rather good option, really. I'd rather get rid of both my parents then have them argue daily and then direct their anger on to me because I "forgot to turn on the TV for my dad" or I "forgot to wash the dishes for my mom." You'd think I would go insane. Oh, hold that thought, I am.

I also have a sister, but I couldn't possibly compare to her. (I'm being sarcastic by the way.) She's one of those complete airheads who couldn't tell a yellow balloon apart from a banana. Of course, she's the most popular girl at school, student council president and all that, but her position's just for show. She comes home all the time and says "Ino! I need you to work out budgeting for the student council." I open my mouth to refuse, but then my mom gives me one of those "if you don't help your sister, I'll hurt you" looks. So, I play the part and help her do her stupid finance work. I hand it back to her and she says, "Good job," and tells me to throw it out in the garbage for her because she's got someone else on it. No "thank you." No "I'll buy you an ice cream for your hard work." In fact, when she doesn't need me, she pretends I don't exist. Her friends at school ask her how come her sister is so uncool and she responds "Sister? What sister?" I'll give her that much, she excels at being a complete idiot.

You could say the whole world is against me most of the time, and you're wondering why I haven't committed suicide yet. Ah, and that is the crux of the matter. I don't want to die. Period. It's that simple. Since I'm like a thorn in their sides for everyone, we might as well keep it that way. No point in killing myself just to make life easier for everyone else. I'm not one of those honorable people who tend to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. No, no. In fact, it'd be better if the greater good sacrificed itself for me.

Like I said, life isn't fair. If I had the power, or was given the chance to, I would murder everyone in my life, parents and siblings included. Unfortunately, I'm extraordinarily weak for my age, but that's alright. Brains over brawn, right?

Lies. All lies. Even in the mafia, brute force was superior to a well thought out plan.

But life continued on, day after day. Little by little, time seemed to slow down around me; seconds felt like minutes, minutes felt like hours, and hours felt like days. One day, I couldn't take it anymore and I let out a huge scream in the middle of my math class. Time stopped. The whole class turned to took at me.

"Are...you okay?" the teacher asked slowly.

I paused for a moment, incredulous at what I had just done. I took a deep breath.

"Yah," I answered dumbly.

But the truth was, no...no I wasn't alright.

That day, I had to stay after school to help my science teacher clean up the classroom. He had said it was my reward for being his prized student. I laughed sarcastically. Reward, eh? More like punishment.

It was around 6:00 p.m. when my science teacher decided to stop torturing me for the day. The sun was setting and the sky was a nice shade of burnt orange. The shadows of the trees were distinctly outlined. You'd think it was one of those scary holidays if you didn't know better.

I glanced around the parking lot of our school. There were only 2 cars left at this point in time; one belonged to my science teacher obviously, and the other one was parked in the very corner. As I got closer, I noticed a man in a light blue dress shirt and tie leaning on it. His hair was a mixture of different hues of blue draped on either side of him. Strange. I could've sworn just a few seconds ago he didn't exist. It was even stranger that a man had long hair and blue highlights these days. I dismissed the thought.

I decided that it was pointless to continue worrying about a stranger. Quickly and quietly as usual, I started walking towards my house. A few minutes later, it started to rain. I felt the first couple of raindrops on my head when I stopped and felt the need to turn around and look at the car again. The man was still standing there. My eyes locked with his as I passed. I shuddered from the thought. That's when I realized that I should probably hurry up and get my butt back home before my father ran out of people to give commands to. There wasn't anything abnormal on a man leaning on a car anyways. I could picture the news headlines: "Man leaning on a car in school parking lot." I laughed at the thought and shook it out of my head.

About half way home, I suddenly had the strange feeling that I was being watched. I've always trusted my intuition to a certain extent, but by this time, I was getting a bit scared. I had no way of guessing what was bothering me. It didn't feel like one of those normal high school boys that stalked their girlfriends. There was a presence behind me that almost felt a bit sinister. Yet, even the existence of a human being near me was questionable. Just because I felt like I was being watched didn't mean I actually was.

Slowly, I mustered up the courage to turn around.

No one in sight. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was still raining, and I couldn't hear anything over the pitter-patter of the cold water droplets.

I sighed and continued walking. There was a feeling of relief in my heart, knowing that I had been worried over nothing, yet there was another part of me that felt a sudden build-up of anxiety.

Step. Step.

I froze. This time I was 100% sure I'd heard something over the rain, a pair of footsteps behind me, stalking me quietly like a predator hunting his prey. Judging by the sound, I estimated that there was someone about 10 m or so from me.

I started walking again, not daring to look back. I quickened my pace and slowly broke into a run when I heard that the footsteps behind me had quickened as well. I fell into a state of panic. My vision blurred in the rain as I started running out of breath. My lungs finally gave in and I stopped. Panting. In the rain.

I felt a strange mix of emotions overcome me. Anger. Desperation. Fear. I gave in to them.

"Alright, WHO THE HELL IS FOLLOWING ME?" I yelled, turning around.

And who did I see?

Absolutely no one. Not a single living soul in sight.

I kept breathing heavily, laughing inside about my own naivete. Who could possibly be stalking a failure in life like me? I was just being paranoid. The rain and cold can make people paranoid, did you know that?

That's when I turned around, and fear took over completely. I collapsed on the cold ground.

The blue-haired man was standing directly in front of me, calmly flipping through an ancient lexicon of some sorts. It took a couple of seconds for him to notice that I was staring at him, and when he did, he closed his book and turned to look at the sky.

"The weather's beautiful today, isn't it?" he asked with a graceful tone.

I could think of a lot of things to blurt out at that moment, like "Who the heck are you?", "What do you want with me?", "Why are you following me?" or "Are you some kind of pedophile or something?" I scratched out that last question because he looked much younger up close. In fact, he was just a couple of years older than me. But in the end, all I could do was sit there and gawk at him like some kind of idiot.

He was beautiful. An angel on Earth, . He's the kind of man my sister would've fallen for easily. (Well, except for the fact that his hair looks like something from the 70's mixed with the 21st century. A rather bad combination at that, mind you.)

Slowly shifting his gaze to me, he opened his mouth. I froze again, all the fear within me dissolved by his gentle demeanor.

"We've been waiting for you," he said calmly.

I paused for a minute, and then broke out laughing.

"You're joking right? This is all some kind of screwed up dream?" I asked, half-crazed.

He chuckled, and apparently, that was all I was going to get out of him.


	2. The Bridge Between Reality and Fantasy

Chapter 2 ~ The Bridge Between Reality and Fantasy

That sure sucks. I would've expected more from a smart-looking guy who carries around a lexicon with him on an abduction mission, but more importantly, who's been waiting for me?

"Here," he said, pulling something out from his pocket and handing it to me.

I had noticed a silver chain dangling from his pocket earlier, but didn't pay much notice to it until now. He opened his hand, and lying on his palm was a necklace with a strangely familiar white, heart-shaped crest with a small node in the center.

"What is that? What are you talking about? Who's been waiting for me?" I asked, feeling a bit more knowledge deprived with each passing second.

He rolled his eyes in disbelief.

"Take it," he said, with a hint of annoyance.

I slowly backed away from him, my eyes fixed on the crest of the necklace.

"Honestly, please don't test my patience. I have a rather short temper, mind you," he said. "Hurry up and just take this so I can get going."

I finally found the courage to speak up again. Or rather, my curiosity got the better of me.

"What? You're just going to give me a present and leave? You're not going to abduct me or something?" I asked, my voice suddenly significantly louder. "You fail as a kidnapper."

That seemed to piss him off.

"Look kid, I know more about the sad reality of this world than you can ever imagine." He chuckled. "It's been a while since someone's insulted me like that openly without expecting any punishment."

I should have probably stop been smart and shut up, but there was just so much I wanted to ask him. Curiousity killed the cat. Again, a lie. Curiousity killed me first, figuratively speaking of course.

"You know, if I weren't under strict orders not to harm you in the slightest bit, I would've killed you already. I'll leave you with that sickening thought," the man said.

This was some kind of joke or something, right? I decided to play along.

"Haha. I doubt you could do much with a lexicon. You could smack me on the head, but you couldn't even knock me out with that," I laughed.

That was the end of his patience. He ripped a page out of his lexicon and brought it up to his face. I continued laughing boisterously.

A couple seconds later, I felt a strange sharp streak of pain right under my left eye. A moment later, I looked up and saw a long stream of blood on the page of the lexicon. I slowly felt the blood from my cut dripping down my left cheek. I lifted my finger up to catch the falling droplets of blood.

The rain kept pouring. The blood kept falling.

"Oh, screw it," he said. "The leader's going to give me a lecture for that. Damn you. But keep in mind, paper cuts can be rather dangerous, you know? Too bad for you, I have to go, but I think you're bright enough to figure out how it works."

And with that, he was consumed by a strange darkness.

"Wait!" I cried out desperately.

But he wasn't there anymore. It was just me. On the ground. In the pouring rain. With an eerie necklace sitting on the ground in front of me.

You know, most people would have dismissed my encounter as the after effect of a hallucinogenic drug or something, but the necklace in front of me was solid evidence. Again, most people with the slightest bit of sense would have ditched the necklace on the ground and ran straight home. Unfortunately for me, I lack common sense.

The necklace gave off a strange aura that attracted me to it. Ultimately, I found myself crawling up to it and touching it.

It was surprisingly cold.

I then continued to wrap my hands around it and pick it up, deciding that it wasn't some dangerous weapon that would blow itself up upon contact. Before I knew it, I was wearing it around my neck. In that instant, it was like I had broken out of some kind of trance and I realized what I had done. My first reaction was to take it off again. So I did. I took it off and held it in the palm of my hand, wondering why the stranger left it here for me.

Though I didn't trust him in the slightest bit, deep down inside, I was extremely happy that someone had bothered to speak to me of his own will, stranger or no stranger. With this in mind, I gripped the necklace tightly and walked home confidently.

The storm gradually subsided, and when I got home, I saw the most glorious sunset in the distance. I smiled, thinking about all the events that had happened today and for once, with an optimistic attitude, I approached the door to my house, hoping today would be different.

"I'm home!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Absolute silence. An awkward silence at that. The sound of a fork dropping resonated throughout the house.

My family was eating dinner. They all stopped to stare at me like I had some kind of a problem or something. My older sister was the first one who spoke.

"Um...are you alright, Ino?" she asked.

I stood there, unsure of how to respond.

"Yah...I guess," I said, a bit embarrassed at my sudden outburst.

My mother stiffened.

"Good, because for a moment there, we were questioning your sanity," she stated bluntly.

That comment left me rather displeased. Without saying another word, I retained my cool posture and stormed upstairs angrily. I could go without dinner, I'd done it a lot of times before. Anyways, I'd been smart enough to buy something to eat on the way home.

I locked myself in my room and went straight for the computer. The seconds passed slowly as I stamped my foot, waiting for the computer to turn on. I had the least technologically advanced computer in the family. My mother adored my sister. She'd always rub it in to the other mothers that her daughter was the Student Council President. I would've liked to add "with no brains," but my mother probably would have lost it and killed me. My dad was indifferent, and selfish. He had all the latest doohickeys and weird contraptions that he could get his hands on. And me? I got the old stuff that no one wanted, also known as, "the garbage." Gasp. Then again, at least I had my own room, my own computer, and my privacy.

When the computer finally got started, I searched for what the crest could possibly mean. After a couple of hours, I finally got a match.

"Kingdom Hearts," I thought aloud.

I've never been much of a gamer, so of course I wouldn't have thought of it, but I recall many of the gamers talking about it at school.

"Must be a good game," I said, munching away on the sandwich I had bought.

After more information scavenging, I had made a sufficient connection between the game and the crest.

"Organization XIII?" I read.

I scrolled down and looked threw the names. Xemnas. Xigbar. Xaldin. Vexen. Lexaeus. Zexion. Saix. Axel...

Hold on, I scrolled back up. That picture of Zexion looked strangely like that man I met on my way home. The hairstyle was different, but the hair was the same colour. I read a bit about him, stopping at the word lexicon.

"Lexicon, as a weapon?" I asked myself disbelievingly.

Recalling my conversation with whom I believed to be "Zexion," I came across another rather interesting piece of information.

The leader...

I scrolled up to the top of the page. Xemnas, leader of Organization XIII. So that's who he was going to get in trouble with. But why would he give me this stupid accessory?

My mind raced with questions. Do these people really exist? How am I related to them? What are the other members like? Why am I even bothering with this? Am I going insane? Am I seeing things I'm not supposed to be seeing? Did this afternoon really happen?

I dismissed all the questions and continued reading.

...Demyx. Luxord. Marluxia. Larxene. And Roxas.

That was it. I was done. I'd extracted enough information from the web in one day. I've always figured that you should get to know what you're dealing with first before you actually make your move. It was good to get some background information first. I sighed, clearing my mind of all that ridiculous information.

But then again, if I didn't believe it was true, why did I spend time looking them up?

My hands wrapped tightly around the necklace.

I collapsed onto my bed, dimissing the possibility that these people could actually exist. Gradually, my eyelids grew heavy with exhaustion and I fell asleep.

I hate siblings, did I mention that? They always find ways to annoy you properly.

"INO!" my sister yelled as she stormed up the stairs.

I woke up with a start. I jumped off the bed and found myself wearing the necklace. I opened the door to my room to find her standing outside it.

"What?" I yawned, somewhat awake.

"You took my teddy bear, didn't you?" she demanded.

I laughed. Did I mention that my older sister sleeps with a teddy bear named Mr. Cuddly? I find that ridiculously hilarious by the way. Of course, I steal it from time to time to make fun of her.

"So what if I did?" I asked.

"I'll tell mom," she said.

You know, sometimes, I didn't know who was the younger sister here, her or me. She asked like those kindergartens sometimes who say "I'll tell the teacher that you did bad stuff, if you don't give me your lunch" or something like that.

"Go ahead, I couldn't care less if she yells at me," I said.

And she knew every single word I said was true.

"Give it back," she pleaded like a helpless baby.

I couldn't help but laugh again.

"Go sleep, you big baby," I taunted.

I probably shouldn't have done that. I turned around and headed for my bed again, and to my surprise, she stormed in right after me.

I heard her footsteps of course, and turned around as she stood in the doorframe.

"Go away," I said firmly.

Honestly, I would've liked it if the door slammed in her face because of the wind or something. That would've been funny. My thoughts flickered back to the Organization.

Our mother always warned us to watch what you wish for.

A strong gust of wind blew right past me and slammed the door to my room shut. I heard the agonizing scream of my sister when the door slammed into her body.

I rushed towards the door and opened it again. My sister stood there, a bit bruised all over her body.

Impossible! Bruises from the door?

Both my parents quickly rushed upstairs to see what the problem was. I didn't wait from them to show up. I grabbed her stupid teddy bear from my closet and threw it in her face. My parents approached my sister and I with a horrified look on their face. I took the intiative this time.

"I'm sorry," I repeated. "I'm sorry."

Not wanting anymore attention, and slammed the door shut and locked it so they couldn't come in. I backed against the door of my room and slid to the floor.

Only one thing came to mind.

I picked up the crest of the necklace in the palm of my hand, and I was shocked to see a strange symbol pulsating in the middle of the node that distinctively resembled a lance. The symbol slowly vanished, and the node returned to it's original dark colour.

Xaldin. The Whirlwind Lancer.

I couldn't believe it.


	3. Delusional

Chapter 3 ~ Dillusional

I have a problem with this. I have a very big problem with this.

How the heck do fake video game characters exist in the real world? Well, sure I'm insane...but I'm not that insane! Fanfiction's probably told you to unleash your imagination. Oh yeah, that's absolutely fine. Note to you: put it on a leash. Don't let your imagination fly too far off from you or you might get completely wrapped up in it.

I sighed deeply, pulling myself back to reality.

School. I have school today. I packed my bags and was about to open the door to my bedroom when I recounted yesterday's events.

A bruise-covered sister came to mind.

Well, even if it was a dream, I probably shouldn't go that way. Instead, I leapt up to the windowsill and attempted to jump out the window. Strange thing was, I wasn't scared, not the slightest bit. As I landed on the ground, I felt my heart beating violently and it was only then that I realized that their was a cold object touching my chest.

I still had the necklace.

Well, again, my first instinct was to chuck it as far as I could, but with my strength, and horrible throwing skills, it'd probably end up decorating the grass 1 m away from me. Option 2: I could throw it out, but almost as soon as the idea came to my mind, I was completely absorbed with it. It was like one of those "Lord of the Ring" things...my precious.... I was kind of dazed after the hypnotic state passed me.

All I could do now was keep it. Unfortunately.

Giving up, I started to walk to school. I would've bought something on the way to school for breakfast, but I ran out of money with the sandwich yesterday. Oops. Oh well, I could go without dinner and breakfast. Yah, I'm alright.

My stomach grumbled. Even my own body's against me.

I tried not to think about food. Silently, I continued on the path towards school.

The school day started off like any other day. As usual, I was only student who arrived promptly, and the math teacher gave yet another lecture about how every student should be like Ino, how Ino is a wonderful student. I would've liked to give her one of her own famous lectures about the basics of sucking up but knowing her, she probably would've gotten me suspended. Then I'd never hear the end of it from my mom.

Biology was fun, we dissected frogs. I'm not a masochist or anything, but I kind of enjoyed cutting at it. I was kind of surprised that I knew exactly how to do it. My mind wasn't even on the frog, I was still thinking about the man I met yesterday, though it got me nowhere.

In English, we went over the principles of writing an essay...for the 500th time or so. I liked to think that our English teacher had short-term memory loss. Well, it was either that or she really really sucks at teaching.

And then we had lunch. I knew the cafeteria servers really well, so they'd shove me free food when they saw fit. Seeing as I didn't have a lunch today, they gave me a burger and fries. I was on a diet, but hey, when someone gives you free food, why not?

Next period was my ethics and philosophy class. I don't even know why I took it. We spend hours writing mostly about stuff that doesn't make sense. Oh well, it's an easy course. An easy course to pass, and an easy course to get 100 in...if you're me of course.

And just when I thought I'd reached the lowest point of my day...everything sped up from there.

My ethics and philosophy teacher always dragged on boring conversations about human nature for hours and hours. He'd always call on me and expect some brilliant response. Well, that sure changed today.

The principal came into the room halfway through the class to announce the arrival of a new student. She turned towards me, beamed at me and then turned to ask the student to introduce himself.

Surprisingly, it only to me a few seconds to regain myself. There, staring at me through the door of the classroom, was Zexion...no, scratch that, "the young man" from yesterday.

He calmly and gracefully stepped through the doorway, past the principal and stood there, staring at our teacher. Slowly, he shifted his gaze towards me. Without ever looking away from me, he introduced himself.

"My name is Rion Schneider. I'm 17 years old and I'll be transferring here as of today. It's nice to meet you all," he said in a sarcastically angelic tone.

I never got a chance to observe him carefully yesterday in the rain, but now that he was right in front of me with no obstructions, he really was...beautiful.

That was my first thought. My second thought was: oh crud. My third thought was that I could finally get the answers I wanted from him.

There was an awkward silence in our class. Most of the girls were staring at him; most of the guys were spitting in jealousy. I watched as he gently walked past the teacher's desk and up to the desk beside me. I could swear that the girl beside me almost fainted.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" he asked the teacher.

"Um...well...you'd have to ask B-B-B-Bianca," the teacher stuttered, a bit scared of him, I should think.

He turned his face towards Bianca, who almost cried out in joy and nodded, quickly packing her stuff and moving to the nearest vacant seat.

"Thank you," he said, calmly sitting down.

To be honest, I wasn't completely sure if he was the man from yesterday until he pulled out his books. A lexicon lay on top of his books. My jaw dropped.

"Are you alright?" he asked me.

Shaking my head, I said "I'm fine."

He chuckled.

"You're being contradictory, you know?" he laughed.

I shook my head in protest.

"No, I'm not," I said.

"Well, you were," he said quietly.

I think the teacher was a bit fed up with us by now. He tapped his ruler on the ground, eager to resume class.

"Alright, we're excited to have to and all, but we really need to cover this stuff," the teacher said impatiently.

I thought he was going to start hurling pages of his lexicon in anger or something, but instead...

"I'm sorry, please continue," he said, keeping a sarcastic smile on his face.

The teacher started to monologue about his life, how unfortunate he was and how he pulled it all together to become a teacher. It was boring, as usual. I'd found something much more interesting to do.

I stared at "Rion" throughout the rest of the class. Actually, it was kind of hard not to stare at him. He was busy flipping through his books, looking for specific pages that the teacher was referring to. The whole class was admiring his page-flipping skills, until the teacher got a bit annoyed with us, well...with me actually.

"...Wouldn't you know, Ino?" the teacher asked sarcastically.

"What?" I blurted out, snapping out of it.

His lips curled up and turned into an evil sneer.

"Well, if you had been listen, you would have known the answer," he said slowly, clearly enjoying himself. "I suppose I have no choice but to call home today."

He wouldn't dare! That'd be the end of my freedom. The only reason why I behave at school is because if I didn't, my mom would completely strip me of what little privileges I had. Have to make something up...have to make something up...which would be easy if I had been listening the slightest bit. Guess what? I hadn't.

"Excuse me, sir," Rion added. "Mind if I answer the question?"

The teacher seemed flustered at his sudden outburst.

"I don't see why not," he said, suddenly withdrawn.

I let out a sigh of relief. I swear I heard him chuckle at that.

"From his experiences, we can easily decipher the fact that the concepts of good and evil are best described as being two different faces of the same card," he said calmly.

The whole class dropped silent. Why? Well, firstly, our ethics and philosophy teacher sucks at teaching ethics and philosophy, for that matter. The best thing I've probably written on a test for a question like that would be "good is good and evil is evil" or something like that. So naturally, the teacher would be stunned to hear an intelligent answer.

The bell rang.

"Class dismissed," the teacher said, nodding at Rion.

Everyone started rummaging through their stuff and packing up their bags. You could easily hear girls around the room gossiping about "the new kid." The teacher sat down and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Everything just seemed very uneasy with him around.

As the students started to leave, I got up and marched right up to his desk. He looked up, with a smirk on his face.

"Are you...?" I started.

"Stop," he said. "It's Rion. Nice to meet you."

I froze. I hadn't even finished asking him my question, but he'd already answered it.

"You owe me some answers," I said coldly.

"And you owe me some questions," he responded coolly.

I rolled my eyes.

"Haha...very funny," I said sarcastically. "Really though, who...scratch that...what are you?"

"Who knows, I'm anybody you want me to be...or maybe nobody," he said.

"I..." I started again.

I never got to finish my sentence, because in that split second, he rose to his feet so silently that I'd swear I was standing beside a ghost. He quickly turned and stepped around me, stopping to say one last word.

"Don't worry, I'm here for you," he said mockingly, loud enough for only me to hear.

He scooped up his bags and walked out the door, leaving me standing alone, in an awkwardly empty classroom.


	4. Losing My Identity

Chapter 4 ~ Losing My Identity

By the time I rushed out of the school, he wasn't there anymore. I figured I'd see him tomorrow and ask him all about it; however, I felt nervous. What if I didn't want to hear the answers? What if he couldn't give me any? What if the answers frighten me?

Either way, I decided to ask him tomorrow. Decided. Set and done.

I couldn't sleep that night.

Thank goodness, his intervention in class had stopped the teacher from calling my mom. I was grateful to him, but that was about as far as our bond went.

It was about 1:00 a.m. that night, when I suddenly felt like waking up. I lifted the covers of my bed, and my legs acted on their own, immediately jumping back towards the wall.

I swear I was being watched.

I scanned around my room, particularly stopping to look at the dark corners when I heard a voice.

"Did you really think that I would make you wait until tomorrow?" it said.

I calmed down immediately, having recognized the sound, and then immediately tensed again. A black cloaked figure appeared from within the shadows, taking off his hood.

"What do you want from me?" I asked carefully.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he asked. "Very well, I'll tell you."

I leaned against the wall in the corner, still a bit worried.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to kill you, nor hurt you for that matter," he said. "In fact, I was sent here to prevent you from getting hurt and to train you of course."

I couldn't help it. I laughed.

"No one would want to hurt me in the first place," I said.

He chuckled quietly.

"Well, that's where you're wrong," he said.

I stopped laughing. I could tell that he was being dead serious.

"You're Zexion, aren't you?" I asked.

"Well what do you think?" he asked.

"I hate riddles. You're Zexion," I stated.

A nod.

"Explain. Tell me everything...that you can tell me," I said.

"Only what you need to know for tonight, humans need to sleep. Especially you. I am Zexion. No. VI of Organization XIII. I'm here on a mission, mostly to train you so that you will be able to defend yourself properly and work for us. The Organization needs more muscle...it needs you," he said.

"And why should I?" I asked cautiously.

"You want to," was his simple answer.

It was true though. I'd always wanted to live life beyond humanity. I'd always wanted to be able to just dismiss my problems with a wave of a hand. I'd always wanted to...

"Enough with that," he said.

"With what?" I asked stupidly.

"The 'I'd always wanted to...' thoughts," he said.

A second's pause. Then I shuddered in horror.

"You can read my mind," I speculated.

Another nod.

"Stop peeking in my mind," was my immediate reaction. "Get out!"

"Don't worry, you'll get over it pretty quickly, because you'll enjoy it almost as much as I do. Those girls in your class, they think about such useless things that it hurts my brain to read their mind," he said.

I laughed, immediately sucked into his pace. What can I say? It was probably true.

"Anyways," he continued. "That necklace of yours is rather special. It reacts to your feelings and changes accordingly. It allows you to draw limited power from any member of the Organization."

I didn't know what to say to that. I nodded, trying to absorb the knowledge.

"However, you tire easily while using it. If I had to guess, if you tried to write a test with me, you'd be out for about a week after finishing it," he said chuckling.

"All you can do is chuckle," I said.

He chuckled once more. "Chuckling is a discreet form a sarcasm that you should make good use of, Xion."

I chuckled, just for the fun of it.

"And might I ask where you got Xion from?" I asked.

"It's your Nobody name. An anagram of Ino with an X mixed in," he said slowly.

Xion. Xion. It didn't sound half bad.

"Anyways, the extent to which you can draw on our powers depends on how into it you are. If you tap into the necklace using "Xion", you won't have any particular abilities, you'll immediately form a black cloak like mine," he said. "It's your uniform, try it."

I immediately thought of an image with me in a black cloak.

"Xion," I breathed.

Almost instantaneously, I found myself wrapped in darkness, and within a few seconds, I was wearing a black cloak, identical to his, and black heels.

I had a strange theory that I wanted to test out. Grabbing my necklace, I stared at the node at the center of the Nobody crest.

Nothing. The node was empty and black as usual.

I recalled last night, with the Xaldin and wind incident. I could've sworn that there was a lance pulsating in the middle of the node.

"Ah, that. Good observation. That is true. It's just that you're not an official member of Organization XIII, because you're not completely a Nobody, so you don't have a crest," he explained.

"Gee thanks," I said sarcastically. "I really feel like somebody now."

Suddenly, I found myself struggling to stay awake, the world swirling in circles. Before I knew it, I collapsed on my bed, the darkness fading around me.

"That's probably the most you can do now," he said.

I closed my eyes, and let sleep take over.

"See you tomorrow," was the last thing I heard.


	5. Fatigued

Chapter 5 ~ Fatigued

I could barely open my eyes in the morning. I was so tired that I felt like I could sleep for a whole day without waking up once, but obviously that wasn't an option.

When I first came to my senses, I immediately remembered his visit yesterday and instinctively backed away from where he was standing last night. The funny thing was, it looked like I was running away from air. He obviously wouldn't have been spying on me for the whole night.

I sighed and pulled myself together.

I'd be meeting Zexion, I mean "Rion" again today, and I could ask him all about it then. He'd have to do a whole lot more explaining. I wasn't very pleased with the lack of information from yesterday, I mean, he probably could of told me that I'd pass out from changing my outfit...sheesh. Next thing you know, I'll end up dying from using Zexion to make my notes write themselves in class.

I opened the door to my bedroom, thinking that yesterday's incident would have already resolved itself.

Yep, did I mention that I'm always wrong?

There was an eerie silence throughout the house. I slowly made my way down to the dining room when I first noticed that the furniture was out of place. For the first time in a while, the house actually looked clean. Well, cleanliness isn't always a good thing.

The only thing I heard before I felt his presence behind me was a rush of wind by my cheeks. I turned around quickly to face him.

"Hello Xion, sleep well?" he asked.

"Are you being sarcastic or something?" I asked.

"Of course not," he responded.

Well, I was completely absorbed by his angelic voice, washing away both my fear and anger. It took me awhile to realize that I'd forgotten about something.

"Right...I don't suppose you have anything to do with the fact that this house is empty...do you?" I asked, treading carefully and trying not to get distracted.

He sighed deeply, walking away from me.

"We've...uh...relocated your family for the time being, messed with their memories a bit. It's alright, they won't remember you. You won't see them anytime soon anyways. I've already orchestrated a fatal car crash in which they supposedly died in. In addition, I've tipped off the media, so we should be all good to..." he said, pausing.

"Wait...backtrack..." I started. "Did you just get rid of my idiotic family for me?"

He turned around to face me, with a sheepish grin on his face.

"In essence, yes," he stated.

You know, if I wasn't all wrapped up in the freedom-filled moment of joy, I would have pulverized him for erasing my family without my permission. Or attempted to at least. I would miss bickering with my sister and trying to find loopholes in my parents' totalitarian way of governing me, but I was pretty sure that I would get over it pretty quickly. I tried to conceal my joy. It wasn't easy.

"A simple 'thank you' would suffice," he said, mischievously.

Thank you. Since you can read my mind, that should be alright, shouldn't it?

"I'd like it said, out loud," he said, enjoying the moment.

I groaned.

"Thank-you," I enunciated clearly and carefully. "But remember, this doesn't mean that I owe you anything."

"Of course not," he responded with a hint of sarcasm. "Let's go, shall we?"

He motioned for me to exit out the door. And for some screwed up reason, I obeyed him like an innocent puppy dog.

We started to walk down the pathway and towards the school. I was in front, and he followed behind casually. Halfway there, I stopped to ask him a question.

"Don't you need your books?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Ah, thanks for reminding me," he said. "We'll be running into others soon, won't we? I'll need to keep up with appearances."

As he was speaking, a backpack materialized out of thin air on his back. I gasped.

"How did you...?" I asked, unable to finish.

"Basic illusion," he said. "You can probably do it too, after tons of practice."

He really was a show-off. I hate show-offs, but once you get past the sarcasm, and the part where Nobodies don't actually have hearts, he's actually not all that bad.

"I can hear you, you know..." he interjected.

Stop eavesdropping. I hate being interrupted in my own thoughts.

"I'm not eavesdropping, you're just thinking too loudly," he said, grinning.

Whatever...at least his ability would be useful in school. We could communicate without speaking. The communication would be one-sided, but it was better than nothing. And he could probably easily find interesting ways to send me messages anyways.

We first came across some girls who were giggling and pointing in our direction when we reached the school boundary.

"Hey Ino!" one of them yelled.

Zexion put on a smug face.

"Do you know her?" he asked quietly.

"No," I responded in a whisper.

The girl came running over, bringing her friends.

"Oh, don't you remember me from science class last year?" she asked hopefully.

I'd have to say no to that one. So, I said no.

"Uh...not really," I said.

"Of course you do," she teased demandingly. "I'm Jocelyn. Jocelyn Hammel. Remember?"

Jocelyn did kind of ring a bell.

"Oh yeah, you were that complete idiot in science class last year, weren't you?" I asked.

It's a wonder why I don't have any friends. Rion let out the faintest chuckle. Sarcasm again, huh? Surprisingly, Joceline, or whatever her name was, didn't seem very bothered at all. She kind of just chuckled with Rion and got over it.

"Mind if you introduce us to your um...friend there?" she asked.

Oh. That sure took me a while to figure out. They were being nice to me because of him. Well, I didn't really blame them, he was really perfect after all.

Zexion scoffed at me.

"Oh...this is Rion. Rion. Jocelyn. Jocelyn. Rion," I said, introducing them to each other.

"Hey hottie," Jocelyn said, winking at him.

I rolled my eyes in disgust. Luckily, someone was thinking the same way as me. There was a silence for the shortest time until he spoke.

"I would respond to that, but you're so completely devoid of grey matter that you'd probably misinterpret my greeting as a sign of affection, so..." he started.

I couldn't help it. I laughed. I think I was the only one in the group who got what he was saying. The girls shared confused looks amongst themselves.

"What's he saying?" one whispered to another.

"I don't know," one whispered back.

"Translation," I said very loudly for everyone to hear, "you're an idiot."

I ended up laughing my head off while walking away. I'm sure Zexion would've liked to stay and elaborate on my insult more, but I was afraid that their brains might've exploded with the difficult vocabulary. So, I quickly dragged him along, and we continued towards school.

Debt repaid.

"I thought you didn't owe me anything," he said when we were a certain distance away from the girls.

"Well, I felt really guilty...so I ended up helping you anyways," I said, laughing.

But strangely, he fell silent behind me.

"Tell me, about this 'guilt.' What does it feel like?" he asked.

I stopped in my tracks, turning around.

"You're kidding, right?" I asked. "This is another one of your sarcastic moments?"

I half-expected him to chuckle again and praise me for not falling for it, but it never came. Instead, with each passing second, I was under the impression that he was being more and more serious.

He turned to face the sun.

"We Nobodies have no hearts, as you already know from your research. We cannot feel despair, sorrow, or guilt," he said quietly.

Poor him... Zexion...with that intellectual name carries that much of a burden. And in that moment, I felt the greatest bit of pity for him.

Something strange happened.

Suddenly, my mind was overflown with strange foreign thoughts that I couldn't control. There were horrifying images, and memory-making moments.

I fell to the ground, unable to contain my emotions any further. I firmly grasped my head, gasping in alarm at the sudden wave of feelings that had come over me. Why? Because that was just it, there wasn't anything there. All these memories, but I just couldn't feel a thing about them.

"Xion," Zexion said, kneeling beside me. "You..."

And then it all calmed down. My mind was at peace again, but I could feel another conscience within my own.

"So that's...what you meant," I said slowly, breathing hard.

I saw a strange look of astonishment on Zexion's face when I said those words.

"You understand now?" he asked quietly.

I nodded, tears rolling down my cheeks. I couldn't possibly imagine the amount of torture it was to not be able to feel anything. Feeling nothing. Knowing everything. Living forever. What horror! That was the unfortunate life of a Nobody.

I understand now. And for the first time in my life, I felt sympathy for someone other than myself.


	6. Awakening

Chapter 6 ~ Awakening

The first bright rays of the sun that fell on my eyes were rather unpleasant. I woke up to find myself lying in the school's infirmary. I got up and quickly scanned the room. I was glad that there wasn't anyone close by.

I let out a sigh of relief, enjoying the small period of time in which I was alone. My alone time was rudely interrupted by a familiar voice.

_You're awake._

I couldn't help it, I let out a small scream of horror. Luckily, no one heard. The guy could give me some warning you know.

**Mind telling me how you're doing this?**

_It seems you're able to hear my conscience in your mind now._

**So those thoughts, all those memories...they were...**

I didn't need confirmation. They were his.

_Congratulations. You're now able to mind read._

I don't know why, but I rolled my eyes again, there wasn't anyone to roll my eyes too. I questioned my sanity for a second there. I tried targeting someone else's mind other than his. A wave of drowsiness instantly washed over me.

_Stop it. Don't waste your energy. I've already taken a guess, but you probably aren't able to hear anyone other than me._

**Why?**

_I'm betting that your skills only work with Nobodies._

**Again, why?**

_Speculation...I'm a Nobody, and I can hear everyone. So as a human..._

**I can only hear nobody...ha...how ironic.**

I didn't really mind though. I could bask in the sound of his thoughts for days without becoming the slightest bit bored. How entertaining they were.

_However, if you lapse into darkness and change into a Nobody, I'm assuming you could hear everyone, not that you could possibly try here._

I felt a sudden question emerge.

**But how come I haven't changed yet?**

_You mean, into a Nobody wearing the Organization's cloak? That's probably because you're doing very basic things with my abilities here. You'd probably need to tap into the necklace a bit more to change. But don't try now. Don't waste your energy. Like I said, the first couple of times you use it, it'll really suck you dry._

I sighed, lying down again.

_Take your time, rest. I'll wake you if anything changes. If not, I'll see you after school._

**Wait.**

But he was already gone. How did that work? He could block me from communicating with him? Jeez...now I was really frustrated. I wondered how he'd explained my sudden unconsciousness on school grounds to the administration. He probably left it to anemia or something.

Oh well, I'd just rest here for the rest of the day until he came and picked he up. I'd look forward to that.

* * *

"Excuse me, Ms. Koubuki," the school nurse called.

My first reaction was: who's that? I'd gotten so used to being called Xion here, and Xion there that I'd forgotten my human name, Ino Koubuki.

"Yes?" I said, with some delay.

"I've done some tests, and you seem to be fine now," the nurse said. "So you can go back to class now."

I nodded, but then paused immediately. I was debating whether to follow her advice and go back to class, or to stay here until Zexion came and picked me up after school.

_Stay._

**Oh, so you're listening to me again?**

It kind of bothered me that I instinctively tapped into the necklace when I felt a presence trying to surround me.

The worry didn't last long though. I would enjoy faking sickness.

_I'll get someone to get you after school, there's something I need to do actually._

And then, he was gone again. What a slippery person. Anyways, I was looking forward to the fun I was going to have with Axel's powers, so it wasn't really that annoying that Zexion disappeared so suddenly.

I felt my forehead.

"Oh, my forehead feels really hot," I said, nearly bursting out laughing. "I think I might have a fever or something."

The nurse cautiously walked over and felt my forehead. She immediately pulled her arm back.

"Ouch!" she half-screamed.

Yeah...I may have overdone that one...just a little bit.

"My god! You're burning!" she said. "I better dial for the hospital. Could be some new pandemic or something."

Oh crud. Well, I continued to improvise.

"Actually, it's not that bad anymore," I said, trying to lower the heat factor. "I think I'll be okay with some rest."

I should've added a few coughs here and there to make it more convincing. She felt my forehead again.

"Alright, just rest a bit longer okay," she said. "I'm sure your friend's parents will be able to get you nice healthcare anyways. Apparently he's from a noble family. I wouldn't see why he'd want to go to a public school, not that it's my concern..."

Friend? Oh, then it clicked. She meant Zexion, I mean "Rion." I couldn't help grinning.

"Thank you very much for the hospitality," I managed, politely.

"You're very welcome," the nurse responded as she turned around and left.

I was alone again. Looking at the clock, I determined that there was about an hour, give or take a few minutes until he'd come pick me up. We'd go home then, and he'd have to answer all my questions.

Home? What home? I wondered.

Oh well, it was his problem now. I'm sure with his intelligence, he'd be able to figure it out. I didn't want to worry about unimportant things. I decided to pass the time by counting the number of yellow tiles on the floor. Obviously, I was very bored.

Before I knew it, I feel asleep again.

* * *

I woke up immediately when I heard new footsteps in the infirmary. It kind of bothered me that I didn't know who was coming to pick me up.

"Ms. Koubuki? Right this way please," the nurse said.

The nurse led a stranger into my room and I was downright shocked when I first laid eyes upon him.

He looked like someone out of a 60 or 70's band...with a mohawk and dark red highlights in his already red hair. He was moderately tall for his age and well built. I could easily tell that this guy was armed and geared for combat at a second's notice.

"Yo! Um...Ino! Right?" the man asked.

Yo?

"Yep, I knew it. Um..Ze...I mean Rion told me all about you," the man said. "I'm...um...Alvin. Yah...Alvin...I'm Rion's chaffeur."

Apparently he knew about my mind-reading skills, because as soon as I tried to hear his thoughts, he formally introduced himself to me.

_Name's Axel. Got it memorized? Come with me. I've been requested by Zexion to take you to our headquarters._

**Hold on.**

But apparently he couldn't hear me. He could only convey his message, but nothing else. I tried to delve deeper into his mind but I couldn't hear anything else. Hm...apparently they could all block me off. And apparently only Zexion was able to communicate back.

"Come on...um...Ino, let's go," Axel said, reaching out his hand. "Ze...I mean Rion's waiting."

An instant check told me that it was okay, and that this guy wasn't actually some monster or villain in disguise. So, I followed the hand and I was immediately pulled up. Standing up, I found that my legs were incredibly weak, and stumbled for a few seconds until I found my balance. My legs still felt sleepy.

"Ah, here, I'll support you," Axel said, lifting my shoulder up.

Gravity immediately felt lighter on me as I was being supported by this man, I mean Nobody. But really, he is as well-built as I thought.

"Take care," the nurse called after us.

"Thanks for your help," I responded back.

He carried me to the school parking lot without talking, where I found a whole bunch of students gawking at a limousine parked at the center of the parking lot.

"Ah, there's our ride," he said, moving closer to the limo.

I frowned. A limo? In school? Come on! But I wasn't about to complain. No sirree.

"Get in," he said, opening the door.

I quickly stepped inside, finding rather vacant with the exception of one person.

He was not nearly as well built as Axel, but clearly as prepared for battle as him. His light brown spiky hair kind of reminded me of a porcupine, but I dismissed the thought quickly.

He smiled and motioned for me to sit down. I watched as Axel made his way to the driver's seat.

"Ready to go?" he asked, with a huge grin on his face.

"That depends," I said. "Do I have a choice?"

"No, not really," he said, stepping on the gas pedal.

I gasped, as the limo immediately made a 180 degree turn, throwing me off my seat.

"Put your seatbelts on," he called from the front.

I quickly fastened my seatbelt and braced myself for a potential car crash. I fell into a state of panic as Axel stepped on the gas pedal once more.

I nearly screamed.

"Haha," the person across from me said as soon as the car calmed down. "Axel's just toying with you, he's not that incompetent at driving."

I rolled my eyes. It'd become a habit of mine now.

"Do you even have a license?" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

"A license? What's that?" he asked, enjoying himself. "Is it some kind of weapon?"

I groaned. Being with these two was a bit like babysitting children. Sorry to say, I much preferred Zexion's company.

"I'm Roxas," the boy across from me said.

"I'm...Xion," I said.

It sounded rather awkward to say that name instead of Ino, but I could guess used to it.

He smiled, as if he understood.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Oh, we're just going to our headquarters," Axel said from the front.

"By limo?" I asked.

"Not really," Roxas said, turning my attention back towards him. "This is just a cover up for this world."

"This world?" I asked. "You mean, there are more of them out there?"

"Of course," he said quietly.

Joy. Just when I thought I had enough misery in this world.

"Where's Rion...I mean Zexion then?" I asked again.

"He's already at our castle," Axel said.

Oh alright...hold on, rewind.

"You guys live in a castle?" I demanded.

"Yeah," Roxas answered coolly.

Oh yeah, there's nothing wrong with living in a castle at this day and age. Absolutely nothing.

The rest of the trip continued in silence. I wasn't really comfortable speaking with them yet, so it kind of felt awkward with them around.

The roads flew by faster than I expected, because in a short 15 minutes or so, the car had stopped and I found myself staring at a monstrous size of a house. But it couldn't really qualify as a castle. Unless we were talking about dwarves here.

"We're here," Axel announced.

"Is this the castle you were talking about?" I asked.

"Of course not," he said, laughing. "This thing's hardly bigger than my room."

My jaw dropped.

"You were...kidding, right?" I asked again.

"Of course," Axel responded teasingly.

A wave of relief.

"So why are we here again?" I asked.

"Keeping up with appearances," Axel said. "According to the government, you, Roxas and Zexion live here officially under my care."

I paused. It was a bit scary to think that this guy could take care of anyone and not get them in trouble.

"Anyways, this just acts as a portal to our world," he said, most likely summarizing a long speech.

We got out of the limo and stepped inside the house. Strangely enough, it wasn't empty. There was all the furniture, artwork and necessities that a normal rich mansion owner would have had.

Reading my expression, Axel repeated "keeping up with appearances."

"Axel, stop teasing her," Roxas interjected.

"I'm not teasing, I'm educating," Axel protested.

Roxas sighed. I kind of just stood there, watching sighs fly between the two people.

"Anyways," Roxas continued. "Meeting room, or entrance?"

"Hm..." Axel said. "Entrance. Gotta start with the grand tour after all. I think Zexion's wants us at the entrance anyways. Probably wants to give you a pep talk on what to do and what not to do in order to survive."

He laughed. I tried to laugh. I mean, he was joking right?

"We've stalled enough," Axel said, finally coming to a stop.

With a wave of his hand, a portal of darkness immediately appeared out of thin air. Creepy. And amazingly cool at the same time.

"Ladies first," Axel said, motioning for me to go in. "Roxas and I will follow. Don't worry."

Hmph. I wasn't about to be ridiculed for being a chicken. I was about to step into the darkness when Axel interrupted me.

"Oh," he said. "And phase first."

Phase? Oh. I noticed their clothing immediately change into that dark robe I'd seen Zexion in last night. Right. Phase.

I willed myself to be surrounded by a cloud of darkness, and strangely enough, I didn't feel as exhausted as I did yesterday when I first changed. Sure there was a bit of dizziness, but as soon as that passed, it felt wonderfully exhiliarating.

"Go ahead," Roxas said calmly. "We'll be right behind you."

I turned back to the portal, took a deep breath and stepped inside. I thought I'd prepared myself for everything that I would see. A castle of epic porportions. Beings with no hearts. People that embodied shadows.

Well, as usual, I was wrong.


	7. The Castle that Never Was

Chapter 7 ~ The Castle that Never Was

I felt kind of lost in the darkness for a couple of seconds there, but with a Nobody's instincts, I was able to find my way. I'd been waiting to see this so-called castle anyways.

Castle. Castle? That's an understatement. I thought I'd prepared myself for everything.

This? This was nothing close to everything.

It took me a while to snap out of it. But the big towering castle (scratch that, more like a giant kingdom) was kind of hard to ignore. There was a turquoise liquid-like substance connecting to the place I was standing on to what I assumed would be the entrance of the castle. You could see random debris floating around all over the place, and what I assumed to be a heart shaped ornament floating just above the very top of the castle. After you get past the eerie castle giving off a powerful, controlling aura floating in the middle of nowhere, it was actually pretty cool.

But that wasn't all. The castle was a striking colour of pure white with grey highlights and what looked like intricate circuit designs running all over it.

Wow. That's really all I can say.

"It's not that big a deal you know," a voice came from behind me.

Up until that moment, I had felt a wavering presence behind me. I was just too caught up with the castle to care. I ended up turning around anyways.

"Welcome," Zexion said.

Oh joy. Him. I would've liked to start scolding him for ditching me in the middle of school all of a sudden, but the difference between his human self and Nobody self was too hard to ignore.

"What happened to your hair?" I asked cautiously.

"The normal hair that you've seen until now is a disguise for humans to fit in more easily. If I go around with this hairstyle, I'd be attracting unwanted attention," he answered.

I was almost going to say "it's a nice hairstyle," but I guessed that the words would've come out all wrong. I quickly realized that he was probably flipping through things in my mind and tried to establish a barrier around my mind.

Apparently, the shielding worked. Zexion scowled, immediately barricading his mind from me when I tried to counterattack.

Anyways, his response seemed pretty reasonable. I pressed on with my next question.

"Now where were you all afternoon?" I asked.

"Saix had me run an errand, so I had to leave," he explained.

I was about to ask "who's Saix?" but I had a feeling that the answer would approach me soon enough, so I kept my mouth shut about it.

"But you're back now," I said.

"Apparently," he shrugged.

A couple of seconds later, Axel and Roxas appeared on either side of me. The first thing I noticed was the hair, again.

"Disguise?" I asked, feeling smart.

"Of course," Axel answered. "Roxas doesn't need one because his hair's already pretty normal in your world."

"And you couldn't pick anything less inconspicuous than a mohawk," I said sarcastically.

Axel smiled.

"Got a problem with that?" he asked, winking.

I groaned. He turned away from me and towards Zexion.

"Oh, how convienient," Axel said. "You owe me a favour for this afternoon."

"Knock it off, Axel," Roxas interjected.

"And why is that?" Zexion asked, his lip curling in curiosity.

"For picking up this deadweight," Axel said, pointing at me.

Zexion stared sideways at Axel.

"Would it make you feel any better if they were Saix' orders?" he asked.

Axel remained silent, knowing that he had lost the battle of words before it started.

"To be honest, I was ordered by Xemnas to keep an eye on her. Saix told me to use whatever means necessary to keep her safe. Driving a limo was not too difficult a mission for you and your little friend here, was it?" Zexion said sarcastically.

The pair looked a bit uncomfortable. I could tell that they didn't really get along well.

But all of a sudden, I felt important. Saix had said to use "whatever means necessary" to keep me safe. With bits and pieces of evidence from their conversation, I'd pretty much already established that their Organization functioned with a hierarchy system and Saix was probably way up there.

Axel changed the subject, before I could think about anything else.

"I think Saix wants us in the meeting room right now anyways. I'll take it you can escort her from here," Axel said. "Wouldn't want her to trip over a stone now, would we?"

Zexion ignored the horrible joke and gave a curt nod.

"Alright then, we'll be going. I'll see you later, Xion," Axel called, disappearing into darkness along with Roxas.

I turned to Zexion after making sure that they weren't hiding nearby and eavesdropping.

"How did he end up getting into the Organization?" I asked.

Zexion chuckled.

"He's more useful than you may think. Easily tamed, easily manipulated, easily controlled," he explained.

The logical reasoning came out a bit more cruel than I had expected, but probably just about covered it nonetheless.

"Alright then, shall we go?" he asked in a gentle manner.

I hesitated for a few seconds, and then nodded.

He led me up the turquoise-coloured, liquid like substance, which was surprisingly solid once stepped on. I kept following him across what I considered the "bridge" to the castle before he stopped me, grabbing my hand.

"Change back," he said.

Excuse me?

"Change back," he repeated, "into a human."

Alright... Well anyways, I phased back into a human, and immediately found myself struggling to get some ground.

I fell, right past him, and down towards a bottomless pit, as far as I could tell.

Luckily, he was holding onto me, so it didn't take too long before I stopped falling. With little effort, he pulled me up with both hands and held me above the "bridge."

"See?" he asked.

Oh joy. He used me as a test subject just to prove something to me? He could've just told me that the "bridge" wouldn't be solid for a human.

"Gee thanks for holding onto me," I said.

"Teaching is worthless without demonstrations," he said.

That was probably true. I wouldn't have paid that much attention to him if it weren't for the proof.

"Change back," he said again.

So I concentrated on Xion and phased back into a Nobody again. He dropped me, and surprisingly there was resistance on the ground this time. We continued walking. Along the pathway to the entrance of the castle (which was surprisingly long), we passed many strange faceless figures in white, who kind of cleared the way for us as we walked by.

"Who are they?" I asked, unable to hold in my curiosity.

"Ah, they are the lower-class Nobodies who function under our orders," Zexion responded.

So I was right, it was kind of like a hierarchy.

"There are many types of lesser Nobodies," Zexion continued. "Those that you see around us right now are the lowest of them all: Dusks.

Dusks. Got it. I hoped they wouldn't kill me if I couldn't recite all the different types of Nobodies at my initiation ceremony.

We entered the castle in silence, taking a strange elevator up towards the next level. The elevator stopped and I was approaching the exit when Zexion stopped me.

"Not that way," he said calmly, grabbing my shoulder.

I turned around, looking for another exit.

"Do you see another exit?" I asked.

He stood very still with a smirk on his face. Obviously, he wasn't going to give me any hints. I groaned and looked around the elevator. An exit on this side that we weren't supposed to use, no hidden trapdoors in the floor, no exit on the other side. There was only one place I hadn't examined.

I looked straight up, and with difficulty, I made out what seemed to be a switch near the ceiling.

"Not bad," he said. "Now get the switch."

I stared at him like an idiot.

"How?" I asked demandingly.

"You have the powers of 13 of the strongest Nobodies at your disposal and you can't touch a switch?" he asked, almost laughing, which was incredibly rare, mind you.

I frowned. Ran through random names in my head and tried to think of their powers. I gave up halfway, because I didn't know enough about pretty much any of them. I looked at the switch, and looked at Zexion, confused about what I should do. While thinking about him, the moves he would make, and what he would do in a situation like this, a random lexicon suddenly appeared in my hand, startling me.

"Ah, good for you," Zexion said, observing the lexicon. "It's really not that hard though. I think you should be able to use any of the Organization's weapons if you slip into their character enough. Not bad, now what will you do with a lexicon?"

I opened the lexicon. My first thought was to look up entries on "how to open switches about 100 m above you" but I figured that it wasn't going to be in there. I was right, in fact, the pages were completely blank. Great. I'd figure that out later.

I was completely out of ideas. I gave up and resorted to the dumbest thing I'd probably ever thought of. I looked at him, standing there and waiting for me. It made me feel a bit annoyed that he could probably get that switch in two seconds and wasn't making a single move to help me.

I took a few steps back, and started to run. I jumped and chucked the lexicon with all my strength towards the switch. As I fell back onto the ground, I felt really stupid, but when you're out of ideas, you do desperate things.

Zexion rolled his eyes.

"That was probably the most inefficient way to apply my skills," he said. "I'm not strong, you're not supposed to go chucking random items with my abilities, especially not books."

I didn't care, I was more focused on the lexicon flying through the air. Even with all the trajectory calculations I did, it was rather surprising that it actually hit the switch.

He seemed very displeased as I reached out to catch the falling book. It disappeared immediately in my hand.

"Hmph. I hope you'll find more efficient ways to turn the switch when you get to know the members better," he said grudgingly.

I think he was still upset about the book-throwing stunt. I would've blamed him, he could've just triggered the switch this once for me.

Before I knew it, the elevator started moving at incredibly rapid speeds upwards. As it came to a stop, I looked forward, and backward and found exits at either ends.

"Backward we go," he said. "Oh, and before we go in...firstly, do not talk unless asked to. Secondly, keep your hood on. Thirdly, don't do anything stupid. That should keep you alive for today," he said threateningly.

I gulped, pulling my hood over my head. It wouldn't be that bad. I hoped.

"Let me formally welcome to the ranks of Organization XIII," he said, grinning.

He forced me into the doorway before I could say anything in protest.


	8. Organization XIII

Chapter 8 ~ Organization XIII

Intimidation. Fear. Power.

Those were the first three things that came to mind when I laid eyes on the gathering of Nobodies. All that and the fact that they had the power to blow me into a million bits and pieces with one wrong move.

Zexion chuckled, probably at my thoughts, and then evaporated into a dark haze, assuming his position on his chair.

Well, for once, I took his advice very seriously. Don't talk. Don't show your face. And most importantly, don't do anything stupid. I had a long history of acting stupidly, so I paid extra attention to that one.

It was silent for the first few minutes that I stepped onto the white platform with the Nobody crest from my necklace. I could feel 13 pairs of eyes gazing down expectantly, and I tried to fight the urge to look up. It wasn't easy. In the end, I gave in. I scanned the round room, barely making out the faces of most of the members while trying to keep them from seeing my face. I turned towards each of the members on the side of the room that was within my vision. Everyone of them was marked with a level-5 danger alert. My instincts told me to avoid fighting with any one of them. One simple slip could easily mean death for me. The tallest seat, a Nobody with silver hair and a commanding aura about him immediately caught my attention. His piercing gaze prompted me to turn away and look downwards almost immediately. The silence was getting a bit uncomfortable by now. Luckily, he started to talk.

"Members," Xemnas started, "we are gathered here today to celebrate a very special occasion."

"Again?" Xigbar interjected. "These new recruits show up everyday now."

Actually? My sense of importance diminished instantaneously.

"Let's just see how this hand plays out, shall we?" Luxord said. "The last one worked out rather spectacularly."

The last one? Who was that?

"Let us welcome our 14th member, Xion," Xemnas said.

A long silence. No applause. No sounds of approval. I was beginning to feel discouraged.

"Woah, woah. Hold on there..." Demyx started. "Wouldn't we have to change our name then? To Organization XIV or something?"

My first thought was, this guy is even more of a pushover than Axel. My second thought was, someone more incompetent than me...that couldn't be bad, right?

"That's unnecessary. She's a bit different from the rest of us, a remarkable specimen," Xemnas commented.

A specimen? Was that really all I was? Someone's toy?

No one else dared to speak up. I was surprised that Zexion hadn't made any of his smart comments yet.

"That's all for today," he commanded. "Dismissed."

Darkness seemed to simultaneously swallow all the Organization's members at once. It was a bit shocking to see people magically disappearing right in front of me. In the end, I was left in a room with Xemnas, Zexion, and another stranger. He had striking light blue hair, a distinguished X-shaped scar across his face, and the aura of a well-developed warrior, strategist and leader, a force to be reckoned with.

"Please escort Xion to her room," the man said.

"Of course, Saix," Zexion said, nodding. "Might I ask when she will start performing her duties for the Organization?"

So this man was Saix. His sharp gaze was only second to his master's. But duties? That sounded like a lot of work.

"I'd expect next week or so," Saix said with an apparent resentment for the delay. "I'll leave the training up to you then."

"Understood," Zexion said, disappearing from his seat.

Did he just leave me alone in a room with two incredibly intimidating Nobodies?

A hand on my shoulder reassured me two seconds later.

"Let's go," he said, creating a dark portal.

I walked through it first without saying a word, him trailing close behind. Well that wasn't so bad...was it? Little did I know that it was just the beginning of my life as a Nobody.

* * *

Two lone figures sat in the empty room, their voices echoing violently.

"Can someone who doesn't even know the pain of being a Nobody or shares the same interests as us, be trusted?" Saix asked, choosing his words carefully.

Xemnas closed his eyes.

"If all plays out well, I believe that we'll be able to find other means by which to motivate her," he said.

"I can't say I follow," Saix said without emotion. "What if things don't work out as planned?"

"They will," was Xemnas' simple, but sure answer.


	9. A Second Home

Chapter 9 ~ A Second Home

When I first stepped out of the portal, I was a bit disappointed by the change in scenery. Compared to the rest of the castle, the bedroom was rather...well, bleak. A simple bed with the Nobody sigil on it and a large window...

And that's when I noticed.

I can't believe I didn't realize it when I first entered the castle. I didn't think for a second that this damn huge castle could have been floating around in space! I mean, in space! Surely humans would have noticed, this being the massive-sized castle that it was. With my more sharpened senses, I could barely make out a planet with striking similarities to earth in the distance. I stood, awestruck at the strange scene for a second, eventually turning around to see Zexion closing the portal.

"Why is it that this place hasn't been discovered by humans yet? Earth's right there!" I yelled in disbelief.

He gave a long sigh, like he was really annoyed to explain the basic math principles to a child over and over again or something.

"Well first of all, the castle is protected by enchanted barriers. Only a select few who are extraordinarily skilled in magic may even find the building, let alone enter unscathed," Zexion began. "Secondly, we're not in the same 'world' as your planet there. You'd probably best know this concept as 'parallel universes' in your world, but that's not quite how you would explain it."

"Care to elaborate?" I asked.

"Hm...there's a barrier-like substance that protects the individual 'worlds' so they are not able to mix. This barrier is not easily bypassed by even the members of the Organization, let alone humans. That's why we normally use other paths, such as the corridors of darkness, to travel between these worlds," he said, finishing.

"I see," I said, contemplating about it.

He started walking towards the wall, assuming a slouching position while leaning against it. I watched him carefully as he slipped into a trance of deep thought. The silence was a bit unbearable at first, but I got used to it eventually. Instead, I took the time to carefully examine the room. It was a completely normal bedroom. Also completely empty and completely devoid of any designing whatsoever if not for the bed and the large window. After a while, I heard a sigh and immediately turned around at the sound.

"Done thinking whatever it is you were thinking about?" I asked carefully.

"Yes," he said, opening his cold, yet strangely soothing violet eyes. "Thank you, for not disturbing me."

"You're welcome," I said, thinking he was being sarcastic.

Reading my expression, he immediately changed his tone.

"No, I really mean it. I despise people who interrupt me in my thoughts...they just don't seem to understand how thinking and planning are necessities to life," he said calmly.

I made a quick mental note: don't interrupt him while he's thinking. I just remained silent mostly on a whim this time. Well...actually it might've been because I wanted to bask in the serenity of the moment and just take in his handsome thinking pose.

"Excuse me?" he said accusingly.

I immediately slammed mental barriers into my head and forced him out, I think I overdid it though.

"Ow," he said sarcastically.

"Well, if you would stop randomly eavesdropping!" I half-yelled.

"When you really need me, you'd want me to be able to eavesdrop," he said, enjoying the argument.

"Well being the genius you are, you should be able to easily tell when I need you and when I don't," I said, enjoying myself too.

Then, something extraordinary happened.

Zexion burst out laughing.

I stood there frozen for the shortest amount of time, and was about to go up and do CPR on him if I thought it would've had any effect. No, instead, I just waited, barely being able to keep in the laughter myself.

He slowly regained his composure. I did the same.

"You," he began slowly. "I've never met someone like you before."

Well...in that situation, I could've said the same too.

* * *

"Let's see if we can catch anyone at the mission center and get some introductions in," Zexion said.

"Introductions?" I asked.

"Well, you looked rather interested in everyone at the meeting," he said. "Was I mistaken?"

"No, no...let's go get those introductions," I said, defeated.

He pointed at the door, beckoning for me to open it. So, I did. Well...no, scratch that. I tried...different from I did.

Well what do you know? A freaky castle with insanely heavy doors. I pulled on it with all my might. I was thinking about trying "open sesame" but I figured that it would make me look like an idiot, so I tried something even more idiotic instead, just so I would have an excuse.

I concentrated on Zexion and tried to pull the door again. No sooner did I slip into his character did I feel a hard smack on the cheek. Ow.

"You idiot!" he said. "For the second time, I've already said that I'm severely lacking in the strength department."

I guess I deserved that.

"Well, what do I...?" I started, before being interrupted by him.

"Lexaeus," he barked.

Lex...who?

"Lexaeus," he barked again.

Wow...who knew he had this side of him?

"Lexaeus, right..." I said, nodding.

Focusing on this "Lexaeus" character, I pulled on the door again. I was a bit surprised at the sudden strength I felt flowing into me, and accidentally misjudged the amount needed to open the door. With a simple pull, the door flew open, and I almost fell backwards with the momentum. Luckily, I felt a pair of hands catch me before I hit the ground.

"I'll let it slide," he said. "This time."

Well...that sure was scary, and unpleasant.

"Let what slide?" I asked, getting up.

"Your lack of efficiency," he said. "I have to properly train you to a suitable level in 2 weeks. The chances of you being even close to prepared are very slim to nigh impossible."

"Is that what you were thinking about?" I asked.

There was a short pause. Then...

"Yes," he answered.

"And why would you care?" I asked.

He didn't have an answer for that, but I think he knew how he would've felt if he had a heart as well as I did. I just let the topic slide, changing the subject.

"So," I said, stepping through the door. "Care to give me the grand tour?"

He looked up, face expressionless for the shortest second.

"Oh...alright," he said lazily.

Did I mention that I was living in a disco ball? So when I stepped outside, I found myself standing in an ornately decorated circular room. From my room, there were 6 rooms to my right and 7 rooms on the other side of the circle. The 7 rooms on either side were joined by a platform with railings, which was then connected at one point on either side to the center walkway. I slowly walked towards the right and approached the bridge to the middle platform.

"Wow..." I said in awe. "Which room do you live in?"

He pointed to the second room on the right on the opposite side.

"Count clockwise," he said. "You're No. XIV, so the door to your right is No. XIII and so on."

I nodded in understanding.

As I stood in the center of the middle platform, I looked straight forward, and then turned to look the other way again.

"And where do these two paths lead?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"The one behind you leads to the elevator," he said.

Oh yeah. There had been two exits on the elevator when we were heading to the meeting room. The other one led here.

"And this path?" I asked.

"This leads to the mission center," he answered. "It's where you go when you start work. Let's pay a visit there."

I approved. I kind of wanted to see more of this place. We walked through the doorway into a lounge-type room surrounded by clear, glass panels on all sides. Though very simple in design, one glance easily told me that it was the most exquisite room in the castle. In the center, stood Saix, who was talking to Axel, while various other members of the Organization were leaning against the walls or sitting on the couches.

The first thing I heard was an annoying sitar sound.

"Who's that?" I asked, rudely pointing in the direction of the sound.

"That's Demyx. I know it's really annoying, but just ignore him, he always does that," Zexion said.

"I heard that," Demyx said, turning around to face us. Uninterested, he turned back and started plucking on his sitar again.

I saw a strange man with a ponytail and an eyepatch sitting down on another couch, a girl sitting comfortably on another couch and a pink-haired man, standing within close proximity to her.

"Oh! Xion!" someone called.

I immediately spun in the direction of the voice and the whole room turned their attention onto me. I felt a bit overwhelmed.

"How're you feeling?" Axel asked loudly.

"Alright," I said, feeling more and more singled-out with each passing second.

"Axel, don't overwhelm the girl before she even starts," Zexion interjected coolly.

"All right, all right, sorry..." Axel said.

I was about to start laughing at Axel's strange expression when the man with the eyepatch came over.

"Hey, kiddo! How's life? Name's Xigbar," he said, shaking my hand.

"Er...it's Xion, not 'kiddo'," I said, taking his hand.

"Meh...same difference," he replied with a carefree tone.

He gripped by hand very tightly, as if it was being squashed under an anvil or something. I fought the urge to say "ow."

"Oops, sorry..." he said, reading my expression. Turning to Zexion, he said "she's a bit fragile, don't you think?"

"Yeah, well...you know what she is," Zexion said.

"As if. Even if I did, I couldn't care less... Anyways, toughen her up this week alright?" Xigbar said. "I have to leave for my mission now. Catch you later, Xion!"

He spun around quickly and walked into a black portal.

Zexion snorted as soon as he was gone.

"You don't get along with anyone, do you?" I asked.

"No, not really," he replied.

"He's too serious for his own good," Axel said.

Another short warning snort.

"Alright, alright! I have to leave now," Axel said, quickly changing the subject. "Bye!"

And with a simple wave of a hand, Axel disappeared into darkness.

I was about to start walking over to the two other people in the room and try to get to know them, but a short warning told me otherwise. We exchanged a quick conversation in our head.

_Stay away from those two._

**Why?**

_Not good to associate with._

I took his advice. He started calmly walking towards Saix, pretending that our short exchange never happened. I attempted to follow him and put on a natural smug face, like he did. It didn't work that well for me. I'd have to work on my "pretend nothing happened" face.

"Saix, is Lexaeus out?" he asked.

Lexaeus again.

"Yes, I just sent him on his mission," Saix said. "He left just a couple of minutes ago."

"I see..." he said. "I'm to understand that I'm excused from the mission roster for a

week, correct?"

"Just to train her, yes," Saix clarified.

I looked from Zexion to Saix, who were both glancing down at me, making me feel shorter than I actually was. Both of them looked up at the same time.

"Alright, let's go then," Zexion said, turning towards the doorway again.

We quickly walked back to my room and this time, Zexion opened the door for me, motioning for me to enter first. So I did.

I sat down on the bed and he slumped against the wall again. I lied down, looked at the stars in the distance and a bunch of questions started to form in my mind.

"Who's Lexaeus?" I asked.

There was no response.

"Is he your friend?" I asked again.

There was a short silence, followed by an unsure answer.

"I don't know, I've never had one," he answered.

"Heh...how ironic, me neither. We might be more similar than I thought," I responded.

I let out a huge yawn.

"Oh, that's right," Zexion said. "You need your rest. I forgot, sorry."

"I can't sleep now, not with all this stuff going on," I said, laughing.

Zexion chuckled and walked over to me.

"Of course you can," he said, putting his hand over my forehead.

Immediately, I felt incredibly drowsy and my eyelids shut themselves involuntarily. I felt a pair of arms pick me up from my awkward lying position and place me to a normal sleep position.

"Good night," he whispered quietly.

I laughed on the inside. What a sly person, but despite all this, he really is a caring person at heart. How ironic.


	10. Deceit Comes Knocking

Chapter 10 ~ Deceit Comes Knocking

Well...things sure started off quite nicely. I was given a strange artifact/accessory-thing, plunged into a world of darkness, and chosen to be the 14th person in a group of 13. What a screwed up world I was in.

I first woke up to find myself still in my bedroom in the castle. As far as I could tell, nothing had changed except for the fact that Zexion was no longer in my room, or anywhere close as far as I could tell. A little white slip of paper in the midst of the light gray floor tiles and walls caught my attention. Jumping off my bed, I scooped up the piece of paper and held it to the light to read it.

_I've got to finish an emergency mission that just popped up. Don't go anywhere before I come back. _

I swear that it was the end of the written message, but somehow, I just felt like the message had a dangerous "or else" attached to it. So, I was stuck here for awhile, eh? Well, might as well make the best of it then.

First of all, let's enjoy myself by disobeying him. Obedience didn't come naturally to me. Not that I could care less.

I opened the door to my room and walked out onto the central platform. I was debating which way to go...but then I thought I should probably get to know more of the members, so I walked into their mission center. Strangely enough, there was a lone figure standing in the center of the room, looking up at the empty sky.

"Hello Saix," I managed as politely as possible.

The blue-haired man turned around. He always had a face that was strangely serene on, and although he was just as handsome as Zexion in every single way, I wasn't nearly as fond of him.

"Hello Xion," he responded coldly. "Sleep well?"

"Yes, thanks," I said, a bit scared. "Where's everyone else?"

"Oh, they're all on their mission for today," he said. "Were you looking for someone in particular?"

"No, no..." I said quickly.

We stood in silence for a short moment, me staring at the ground to avoid his piercing gaze.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" he asked suddenly.

Oh...crud. Right. School still existed in another dimension, didn't it? Darn shame.

"Your teachers will be...worried...if you don't make it today, won't they?" he asked innocently.

"Yeah, probably," I answered quietly.

"Here," he said, creating a black portal. "This'll take you straight home. I'll be sure to tell Zexion to join you when he gets back."

Well that was awfully nice of him, I thought.

"Thanks," I mumbled, as I stepped into the portal.

Oh right. These people don't feel an ounce of guilt, do they?

* * *

Did I mention that I was tricked by Saix and transported to a strange world with large cannons at what appeared to be a harbor? You see, the thing I hate about cannons, they blast me into pieces...and this world, this world had a heck of a lot of them.

As I got over the fact that I was tricked, I first thought that I was an idiot to have not just stepped back into the portal when I stepped out of it, but again, it took me a while to take everything in, so by the time I got over it, the portal was already gone.

I sat in a corner silently, waiting to be rescued by someone. Would they ever find me? Would they care? How many worlds were there anyways? 1, 2...6,230? I hoped not. Anyways, the chances of being rescued got bleaker and bleaker. I nearly burst out crying for being an idiot in my little corner.

Then all of a sudden, things got from bad to worse.

The ground started to violently rumble and I jumped up immediately, searching for the cause. I was thrown off my feet and landed face flat on the pavement. As I got up again and the tremors stopped, I was standing face to face with a gigantic black-coloured thing (yeah, that's the best word I could describe it with) that was staring right at me with bright-yellow eyes.

I cringed in fear.

"I...uh...don't suppose you're with the Organization?" I asked timidly.

No response. Apparently it didn't speak human, or Nobody for that matter. Instead it responded with a large punch into the ground, sending random mini-black things flying all around me. I doubled back a bit to avoid it...didn't want to get hit by it. Apparently it spoke the "beat me to smithereens" language.

"Oh..screw this!" I yelled with sudden confidence.

My first thought fluctuated back to Zexion, and then to his words.

_I'm not strong, you're not supposed to go chucking random items with my abilities, especially not books._

Next thought.

_Lexaeus._

Alright, that would do. Lexaeus it was.

That sudden surge of energy came back to me, and this time, with a tomahawk attached to it. A nice large tomahawk. Something I could use for once. My fear instantly disappeared in a single moment and I found myself running up to the giant thing in anticipation.

The thing threw a giant punch down at me. I jumped sideways to dodge it, throwing in a few slashes here and there. The tomahawk felt surpisingly light...for a very short, short while. I kept on evading and slashing and evading and slashing for a couple of minutes until exhaustion kicked in.

I started panting unbelievably hard. I decided to make a final move before I fainted and try to crash it on the head, but before I could, another wave of exhaustion washed over me and my weapon disappeared. I fell backwards. Strange. This necklace sucks your energy when you use it, but I already knew that, didn't I? When I looked up, the thing didn't look the slightest bit tired...a bit hurt maybe, and a bit fazed, but definetly not tired.

I closed my eyes and prayed for a miracle.

Guess what? A miracle.

"Are you okay?" a strange voice shouted.

I opened my eyes and realized that I wasn't even in my Organization XIII suit anymore. There must be like a fail-safe on the device so that I revert back to a human when I run out of energy.

"Are you okay?" he shouted again.

"Huh, what?" I said, acknowledging the voice.

A relatively short, brown-haired boy walked over and stood in front of me, a strange key-shaped weapon in hand. He was quickly followed by a duck in a magician's suit and a dog in a knight's suit. Rather ridiculous, really.

But the boy was the one that really bothered me. He...looked really familiar somehow. And that's when...

"Sora..." I croaked.

I had no idea how I knew his name, nor did it matter, but this guy shared a striking resemblance to him...and his name...

"Hang on, we'll help you," he said, extending a hand.

I didn't take it though. I'd known well enough not to trust any strangers again.

He didn't have time to complain. The giant thing attacked and I sprung backwards along with the other three.

"Damn Heartless," the duck cried.

Heartless? Were these black things called Heartless? Just the name was enough to tell me that the Heartless were probably enemies of the Nobodies. The two just sounded like such opposites. So then, that would mean that Saix tricked me and sent me here probably to test me to see if I could dispatch this huge thing. If I could, good for me. If I couldn't, he'd have taken out the trash.

So that's the type of person he was. I made a mental note again.

While I was off contemplating, my brown-haired friend and his lackeys were busy at work, trying to fight the giant thing. I gazed in awe as the three worked together and defeated the giant Heartless.

The Heartless evaporated into darkness and the boy and his friends turned around sighing.

"Are you okay...?" Sora started.

There was a sudden gasp from all three of them as they stared at me.

Fortunately, they weren't staring at me after all. They were staring at the cloaked figure who materialized behind me.

"Organization XIII!" they screamed in unsion.

I turned my head around quickly.

"Oh...sure took you a..." I started.

A slap on the cheek and a knock on the head. I went out pretty quickly.

* * *

"What're you going to do with her?" Sora yelled.

The cloaked man seemed to smile a bit as he tossed Sora's question aside.

"None of your business," he said. "You didn't see anything."

Waving his hand, he disappeared with the girl into a portal of darkness, leaving the trio a bit confused.

"Uh...Donald, what were we doing here again?" Sora asked.

"Gawrsh Sora, there was a huge Heartless," Goofy started.

"...and we defeated it," Donald finished.

They paused silently to think.

"Wasn't there a girl there too? I can't really remember...aw...my head feels like it's been messed with!" Sora yelled in disbelief.

There was, but they'd never be able to confirm it, not after he threw them off track.


	11. Explanation

Chapter 11 ~ Explanation

The two men stood in an empty room, both ready to tear each other apart in a moment's notice.

"You knew full well what was going to happen," Zexion said coldly.

"Your point?" Saix asked.

Zexion remained silent. Of course he knew better than to oppose the Superior's judgement.

"Zexion, the Organization is the priority here. I'm sure you realize that, don't you?" Saix asked mockingly.

Zexion started walking in a circle, and then turned up to look at Saix.

"I don't understand your logic here. You tell me to bring the girl here unscathed, then you plan to get rid of her," Zexion started slowly. "If you wanted her out of the picture in the first place, why bother escorting her here?"

Saix glared at Zexion, avoiding the question, he struck back in another area.

"Why did you intervene?" Saix asked.

"What?" Zexion said, suddenly thrown off. "You haven't answered my question."

Saix' eyebrows twitched a bit, clearly enjoying the confusion here.

"Tell me, Zexion. Why did you save her?" Saix asked.

Zexion scoffed.

"I didn't," he responded. "She was already saved by the time I got there. I merely brought her here, again, like you ordered in the first place."

Saix nodded in understanding.

"It is true that you didn't save her; however, if you were in Sora's position, what would you have done?" Saix asked.

Zexion chuckled.

"If I had a heart, I would've saved her out pity," Zexion responded.

"And what if you were in the same situation without one?" Saix pressed on.

Zexion shifted uncomfortably in his position.

"Don't forget where your loyalties lie," Saix said coldly as he turned around to leave.

Zexion glared at him menacingly until Saix reached the exit of the mission center.

"You haven't answered my question," Zexion called.

Saix paused, and then continued walking. Strange thing was, he didn't look back.

* * *

I woke up with a start, thinking that it was all just some strange freaky dream that I got stuck in. A quick look told me otherwise.

Getting up, I looked at the floor again, and saw the note that he'd left me on the floor yesterday. I picked it up in anger and attempted to burn it to a crisp in my hand. The paper exploded in flames, but strangely enough, the page was still there after the fire had disappeared. All the writing was gone, but the page was still intact.

"Don't go burning pieces of my book," a voice said, holding out his hand as the page flew back towards him.

"Sorry," I said.

"You're awake?" he asked quietly.

I nodded, then collapsed back on my bed, closing my eyes. I heard him take a few steps towards me, and then...

"Ow!" I yelped, feeling my face. "What was that for?"

"Couldn't you be bothered enough to read the damn page?" he demanded.

"I did read it," I protested.

"Well obviously you're not literate then," he decided.

I looked away to avoid his gaze, staring at the wall. I probably shouldn't have disobeyed his "orders," but the idea just seemed so appealing at the time. He sighed.

"Humans," he blamed. "Well at least you got some decent fighting experience in."

If you count about 2 minutes of carrying a giant tomahawk around and waving it around like a madman fighting experience, then yeah...I got some.

"Do you feel alright?" he asked.

The words came out unexpectedly gentle compared to what I had anticipated.

"Yes," I responded.

"Care to go to school today?" he asked again.

"Only if you're coming," I said.

He rolled his eyes and created a portal with his hand. I stared at it for a long time, trying to decide whether it was safe or not. I wasn't big on trust after the run-in with the giant Heartless, but it's Zexion. Somehow, deep down I knew that I could trust him. So without another thought, I stepped into the portal.

* * *

I found myself in the meadow near the fields of our school. A quick look told me that Zexion was right behind me.

"You wouldn't happen to have my books, would you?" I asked.

His lexicon materialized from thin air, and he started to flip the pages rapidly, pulling out my backpack from one of them.

"Gee thanks for the imaginary bag," I said.

"It's not imaginary, that's your bag," he responded.

My jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Isn't this some illusion?" I asked.

"Does it feel like an illusion?" he probed.

No, not really. It was pretty solid.

"I was kidding," he said. "Illusions feel real too, that's why they're illusions."

"Then how did you...?" I started.

"I can compress things into this book and restore them when needed," he said, a bit impatient again.

"I see..." I noted.

"There's only so much I can do with an illusion on someone else," he said.

He materialized his own backpack from the air, but this time, I could clearly notice the flaws in his fake backpack. If you looked closely enough, it was easy to tell that it didn't really exist.

"Good job," he said.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"Now let's stop talking and just go, alright?" he asked.

"What a capital idea," I mumbled again.

We slowly walked towards the school. By the time we got there, we were already half-way through the morning. I was supposed to be in English, and him in Math.

"Let's go sign in, shall we?" he asked. "I hate these inefficient systems."

We walked in silence towards the office and we stood in front of the office, both thinking more about yesterday's events more than anything really. I was a bit surprised when he opened the door for me.

"Great. Now you open the stupid door," I grunted.

He put on an angelic smile. I rolled my eyes. I didn't fall for his nice act anymore, not after I'd seen his other side.

I entered the office, followed by Zexion, and I walked up to the secretary and spoke.

"Hi," I started.

"We want to sign in," Zexion finished for me.

I glared at him dangerously.

_**I can speak for myself, thank you.**_

_Considering you're not literate, I'd rather you not speak. You might end up getting us stuck in some truck shipment to Argentina._

_**You can speak then, but not now.**_

"We want to sign in," I repeated again.

He chuckled quietly.

"Alright, so that's Ino Koubuki and Rion Schneider, right?" the secretary asked, barely looking up.

"Yes," I said. "That'd be english and math respectively."

"Got it," she responded. "Alright, so just fill out the form here."

She pointed to a small white slip of paper towards the side of the desk. I was about to move over there when Zexion brushed me out of the way and picked up the pen.

It was clearly obvious to me that he wasn't even writing anything. The words were just writing themselves and the pen was moving himself and mimicking the motion without his hand even moving. Apparently I was the only one who noticed. The secretary didn't seem to care.

"All right then, off to class with you," she responded as the pen placed itself down.

We calmly walked out the door as he grinned in amusement.

_The secretary's an interesting character._

_**What?**_

_She's a bit insecure, but puts on a bored face just to mask it. Her whole exterior is a complete lie._

_**I don't care.**_

_Of course you don't, but I'm extremely interested in learning how humans function._

_**And am I interesting?**_

_A bit._

_**Only a bit.**_

_Well more at first, less now._

_**Hmph. Nobodies.**_

He smiled.

_Well, we're here._

Standing in the doorway to my class, the teacher looked up in the middle of the lecture and nodded his head, acknowledging me.

"How are you feeling?" the teacher asked.

_**How are you feeling?**_

_You were sick, weren't you?_

"A bit better now," I answered, staring past him and into the class.

The whole class looked up from their books and stared at us. I was feeling a bit more insecure by the second and looked back at Zexion, who calmly put a hand on my shoulder and pulled out a note from his lexicon.

"Here's her excuse note," he said, throwing it to the teacher.

Ten bucks says he just wrote it two seconds ago. I didn't need ten bucks to know that I was right.

"And this Alvin your father? I thought he was your chaffeur," the teacher accused, looking at Rion.

"Adoptive father," Rion lied smoothly. "I've been orphaned since I was six and I've lived with him since then. He just likes to joke around."

What a problematic lie. How would he explain my involvement with his family...?

_Oh...the car crash thing with your family isn't set to happen until a while. I've just been giving the media hints of it. It'd be too coincidential if your family disappeared right after I showed up._

_**Right...**_

"Alright then, come on in Ino, we're just finishing up for today," the teacher said reluctantly.

Zexion tapped me on the shoulder and walked down the hallway, leaving me alone in the doorway of my classroom.

_I'll see you outside at lunch._

What did he say?

Outside, where?

But he'd already shut me out of his mind. I looked down the hall and was about to ask him verbally, but then I realized that it would look weird on the security cameras since we didn't say a word on the way up here.

I gave up and just took my seat in my classroom.

_**Nobodies. How annoying they could be.**_


	12. Experimentation

Chapter 12 ~ Experimentation

The bell rang.

I looked up, startled at the sound and realized that I had actually understood everything that we went over in class today without trying to pay attention. My mind was actually on the Organization and the World that Never Was, but when I asked myself what I learned today, I could split the english lesson apart, minute by minute.

While I was packing up, a group of people came over to me and greeted me.

"Hey," they said in unison.

"Hi," I said, uninterested. "What do you want?"

"Um..." one of them started.

"If you want me to introduce you to Rion, forget it," I said bluntly.

I almost added on a "he's mine" at the end of the sentence, but I decided against it. It would be a bit too awkward at this point in time.

I stepped around them and out the door.

Outside it was.

I was walking down the hallway when I was interrupted by another group of students who asked me the exact same thing as my classmates.

"Do you think we could..." they started.

"Hm..." I said, "let me think about that...um...no."

They stood there, dumbfounded.

I was rummaging through my locker when I felt another tap on my shoulder. Furious, I turned around, fully ready to strangle the person.

"What do you WANT?" I half-yelled.

Time stopped. The whole hallway turned to look at me and I stood there, arm-raised, smiling.

"Sorry," I said quietly.

I waited until the people started to move again and it was only then that I paid attention to the girl in front of me.

"Um..." she said. "I was just wondering if..."

I slammed the locker door, hard. I was really tempted to pulverize her.

"Look...what's your name?" I asked.

"N..N-Nina," the girl stuttered.

"Alright, Nina," I said. "I don't really want to..."

_Wait._

Oh joy, why interrupt me now?

_She's different._

_**What?**_

_She's different from the rest of her. Talk to her and you'll know._

And then he was gone again. More importantly, she was important enough for Zexion to make a mental trip just to tell me about her. I decided to take his advice and hear her out.

"Alright, what do you want?" I asked as politely as possible.

The words came out a bit harsher than I expected.

"If you're busy now, I'll come back later," she said quickly.

"No, that's alright," I said, trying to sound comforting.

It didn't really work well, since I'm a harsh-sounding speaker by nature.

"Um..." she said timidly. "Could we not talk here?"

"What?" I asked.

"Could we go somewhere more private?" she asked.

"What for?" I asked again.

"Please!" she pleaded, looking at me desperately.

What was her problem?!? Why would Zexion even bother to pay the slightest bit of attention to someone like her? I speculated about it for a minute. She's probably decently intelligent, but she doesn't have an "in-your-face attitude." She's also clearly lacking self-confidence. Hm...

"Alright," I replied. "Let's go outside."

I led her outside the school doors, the whole school turning to watch our exit. We walked slowly, in silence, towards the meadow where Zexion and I first entered this world from. I didn't know why I was going there. I just had a strange feeling that was tugging me towards that area.

After a while, we passed a large tree with an extraordinarily strange shadow. I looked at the shadow, then, without looking back, I called for him.

"You tricked me," was my first comment.

He chuckled.

"I messed up your sense of direction," he said. "But that's not even close to constituting as a 'trick.' Regardless, good job."

I turned around, looking up on the branches of the tree. There he was, sitting on one of the lower branches, violet eyes staring down with solemnity.

"Hello Nina," he called.

"Um...hello," Nina stuttered.

I stood, lip pursed. I tried to simultaneously keep 2 conversations going at the same time. Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard.

_**Care to tell me what the deal with her is?**_

"So, we're eating lunch in a tree?" I asked.

_Why don't you talk to her, you'll see how she's different._

"Why not?" he responded casually. "Get up here."

_Don't climb of course. Don't worry about her seeing anything strange. I've got you covered. It's a nice test._

"You're really demanding," I said, thinking the same thing.

He chuckled quietly.

_**Who should I try?**_

_Xigbar. Teleportation. Marluxia. Flowers. Go for displacement...a teleporting effect, maybe?_

I closed my eyes, concentrating on the name. Xigbar. It just didn't really feel right. There was just a strange empty feeling when I tried to think about teleporting. Hm...Marluxia. Then I ran a picture of me standing on the ground, and a picture of me sitting in the tree through my head.

Something clicked within me. There was a strange sensation. Like I was being blown by the wind and whisked to another place without realizing it. The truth was I didn't realize it.

I opened my eyes and was extremely startled to see myself disappearing. I nearly screamed, until I noticed that I was transforming into pink flower petals and blowing upwards towards the tree branch.

_**Wow...**_

Zexion's eyes opened wide with acknowledgement.

_Most exceptional._

I found myself sitting in a tree branch a few seconds later, a couple meters above the ground.

_Well done. That's a lot of progress for today. _

I beamed at him. And strangely enough, I didn't feel that tired.

_Hm...you combined the two ideas and...hm..._

He went off into one of his thinking sessions. I didn't really care. I enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment.

"Wow!" Nina yelled from below. "You climb trees like a monkey."

A monkey? Was that supposed to be a compliment or an insult? I couldn't help but stare at Zexion's direction.

_**You made me look like a climbing monkey?**_

No response.

_**Oops sorry. No interruptions. Right.**_

I immediately shut up, or more like stopped thinking to him (does that even work?). Instead, I swung downwards, keeping my legs hooked on the branch. Concentrating on Lexaeus, I tried to keep my balance and strength to properly grip the branch with my feet.

"Climb up on that first branch there," I said, pointing at one of the lower branches of the tree. "Then I'll pull you up."

"Okay," Nina said, clearly happy that I was talking to her now.

She stepped carefully around the tree and found an easier spot to climb. She barely made it to the branch, carefully standing up on it. I reached out and caught her hand, immediately throwing her upwards and catching her by her feet. She burst out screaming in terror.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

I think she was too shocked to reply.

I started swinging for momentum while keeping my feet gripped on the branch.

"Um...don't you think that this is too dangerous?" she asked timidly, hands dangling in mid-air.

"Not even," I said, enjoying myself now.

After playing with a giant Heartless, swinging on a branch didn't seem so dangerous at all.

"Grab the first branch that you see," I said.

"What if I don't?" she asked.

"Well, that's hope that doesn't happen," I said teasingly.

I wasn't very concerned with that problem. I thought that it would've been pretty hard to miss the branch. I swung us in a circle, using the branch as an anchor.

Zexion's eyes flashed open.

_You idiot._

He jumped from his branch up to the next branch...or rather it looked like he "jumped" but he actually disappeared and appeared simultaneously. As far as I knew, Nina couldn't tell.

Lowering his hand, he caught Nina before she slammed face-first into the branch and she dangled there in mid-air, with a horrific expression on her face.

I sat upright on the branch, staring at the two above me.

"Oops, sorry," I mouthed.

Zexion pulled Nina up and sat her down on the branch. Then he "jumped" back to his original branch and sat back down again.

"Thanks," Nina mouthed.

"It's fine," he said.

It was silent for a moment.

"I guess I messed up there," I started.

_Humans are fragile creatures. Don't expect them to emerge unharmed when you slam them into tree branches at amazing speeds._

"You think?" he asked with a hint of sarcasm.

_**I don't remember being that fragile.**_

_Well you were. Paper cut across cheek ring a bell?_

"No, don't blame yourself, I'm fine," Nina said, clearly a bit shaken.

Zexion stared at me accusingly. I looked away.

"So," I said, changing the subject, "what did you want to talk to me for, Nina?"

"Huh? Oh...that..." she said. "Well, to be honest, I've always kind of liked you as a person."

"What?" I sputtered in shock.

Zexion chuckled. I snarled at him.

"It's just that, you never really talked to anyone at school. You kind of just kept to yourself, and it was a bit scary, really. But then, when Rion tried to talk to you, and you responded, I thought maybe I could...um...you know...too," she said.

I stared at her in disbelief.

"Could you stop that? It's a bit unnerving," Nina said.

"Oh sorry," I mumbled, immediately looking away.

_**She's different from the rest.**_

_No really?_

_**She earnestly wants to be my friend, and she's not getting close to me for you either.**_

Zexion chuckled again.

_I thought you might like an anchor to humanity. I've been sensing that since you first went to our world. She's a perfect person to use._

_**Please. Not use, to make friends with.**_

_I don't have feelings, remember?_

_**You know as well as I do that it's not true if you don't want it to be.**_

He stopped talking. So did I.

"Nina, was it?" I asked.

"Yes?" she responded.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Ino," I introduced. "This is Rion."

"Hello," she said politely, her voice tingling with joy.

"Hi," Zexion greeted coolly.

We spent the whole lunch hour, sitting there, just enjoying the view and talking.

"So, Rion...why did you transfer to our school?" she finally asked. "Aren't you from a noble family?"

"Not really," he explained. "I've been homeschooled for most of my life. I just want to see what the outside world has to offer. That's all."

The lie just sounded so convincing. Even I was almost convinced, which is sad because I knew the truth.

When the bell rang, we groaned in unison and picked up our books to get back to class. Zexion and I both just "jumped" down to the ground (me using flower petals, him using portals of darkness). We started walking back to the school when we realized that we forgot something.

"Um, help?" Nina asked as she looked down.

I quickly ran back to help her down.

_Let's do some practice while we're at it. How about a cushion of air?_

_**Some practice with her life? Are you insane?**_

_a) You need deadly motivation. b) If you don't make it, just hold your hands out anyways. You can shift from Xaldin to Lexaeus if need be and catch her._

Hm...that sounded reasonable.

_**Alright.**_

"Just close your eyes and jump," I said. "I'll definetly catch you, it's a promise."

"Easy for you to say," she yelled back.

Even so, she trusted me, closed her eyes and jumped.

Xaldin, I thought. A large gust of wind blew past me and seemed to float right above the palm of my hands. Nina landed right in the middle and I willed the wind to slowly subside until she was in my arms.

"Good job," Zexion said. "Now hurry along Nina. I have a spare so I should be fine."

Nina nodded.

"Thank you very much...Ino, Rion. Really appreciate it," she said, bowing.

With that she turned on her heels and ran towards the school.

Zexion turned to me when she was out of sight, materializing his lexicon.

"You idiot. I'm afraid we may need some discipline, throwing humans around in trees," he started, ripping a page out of his lexicon.

He moved towards me, aiming to scratch my cheek, like when he first met me, but something was different this time.

I saw the page in slow motion as he attempted to swipe it at me. My first reaction was to grab the page with my hand, and so I did. Except the motion was so fast that even Zexion didn't expect it. I caught the page in between my two fingers.

He looked at me in utter disbelief.

"A combination...Luxord and Larxene," he said slowly.

Then he chuckled quietly.

"This is proceeding much faster than I would've thought," he said quietly, to himself more than anyone.

I stared at him, oblivious to what I had just done.

"Oh..." he said. "Come on, let's go back to school."

We walked back together, sharing fragile illusions of happiness with each other.


	13. A Mansion in Detail

Chapter 13 ~ A Mansion in Detail

"INO! How dare you fall asleep in my class?" the ethics teacher screamed, slamming his books on my desk.

I woke up with a start.

"Just because you're doing well in this class doesn't mean you can just slack off towards the end of the semester," the teacher lectured.

I heard a familiar chuckle as the teacher resumed the lesson.

"You've exhausted yourself," he stated.

"I've realized that I'm tired, thank you very much," I croaked weakly. "You're the one who made me do all those stupid exercises in the first place."

"True," he admitted.

"And besides, why didn't you cover for me?" I asked.

"I tried," he said, shrugging.

Yeah, right. If he tried he could make me look like a monkey; compared to that, I didn't see how hard making me look awake would be.

"Didn't you say that you have a spare to Nina?" I asked.

"Oh that," he said, remembering. "Yeah, it's called 'a lie.' Look it up sometime. Besides, you already knew that I was in your class next period."

I groaned.

"I forgot," I complained.

"Sucks to your memory," he responded.

Class ended pretty quickly. I was pretty sure I fell asleep again, but this time, the teacher didn't wake me up. I'm sure he actually covered for me. When the bell rang, he gave me a gentle tap on the shoulder and woke me up.

"Let's go," he said.

I reluctantly pulled myself out of my chair and packed my bags. We exited the classroom together.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"My 'house'," he answered.

"We're not going by limo again, are we?" I asked.

"Now that you can properly exploit your abilities, no," he answered.

"I don't think I can do much more today," I said, wearily.

"That's alright, we'll just take my portal then," he said.

We exited the school and marched towards the meadow where we entered from again. It was a relatively well-hidden area, and Zexion seemed pretty certain that no one would find it besides them. When we got there, he did a quick scan of the area to make sure that no one saw anything. When he was certain that no one was nearby, he waved his hand and opened a dark portal. Eager to get some sleep, I stepped into it.

I found myself in the massive entrance hall of Zexion's mansion on earth. I looked at the newly renovated interior to find that it was glistening white, with a magnificent marble staircase on either side of me, leading up to a gigantic double door on the second floor. There was a door right in front of me, right under the exquisite double door, and a door to my left, which I recognized as the room in which Axel and Roxas used to take me to the World that Never Was. Regardless of size, the mansion looked incredibly elegant.

I was so caught up with the new decorations that I nearly screamed when I saw a stranger standing in front of me. I crouched back against the wall and nearly screamed in surprise. Zexion appeared in a few seconds, reassuring me by putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, this is just our 'butler'," Zexion explained. "He's one of the Nobodies that I control, a Summoner that I bestowed with intelligence."

I relaxed a bit after hearing his explanation.

"Good afternoon, Masters," the Nobody said.

"Greetings, Kanon," Zexion responded formally.

"Hello Kanon," I quickly said.

"Good afternoon, Masters," Kanon repeated. "How can I serve you for today?"

"Prepare her room for her, if you please, Kanon," Zexion ordered.

"Yes, Master," Kanon responded, bowing.

The butler then left us to do his work, leaving Zexion and I alone in the entrance of the mansion. He turned towards the door and motioned for me to look in the upper left corner. A switch.

"I'll flip it for you now because you're tired, but normally, you would have to flip it yourself," he said, summoning his lexicon.

A couple of pages flew out, flying upwards towards the switch, wrapping themselves around it and pulling it downwards.

I heard a large rumbling, and quickly turned my eyes to the second floor. The walls came apart around the gigantic double door, and two sets of staircases appeared on either side, leading in opposite directions. I looked up in awe.

"Climb either staircase and you'll find a platform connecting two rooms," he said. "One for me, one for you. I'll use mine as a study. Never enter it."

Again, there was a dangerous "or else" attached to the end of that message. I nodded quickly, thinking he was dead serious. This time I had an urge to obey.

"What about Axel and Roxas?" I asked. "Don't they live here too?"

"Correction: the government thinks we live here. Honestly, I'll only use my room as a study. If I wanted to relax, I'd just RTC. I hardly sleep anyways. I don't exhaust physically or mentally, so theroretically, I wouldn't even have to sleep if I didn't want to. Still, it feels good to sleep," he explained. "You on the other hand, need to sleep even more than normal humans. Since you can't create portals, if I'm not around, you can't even RTC. Your abilities are limited. Although you could probably develop your teleporting technique to be able to move between worlds, that's probably way beyond you right now. So if you don't have enough strength to do anything, feel free to just collapse on the bed in this mansion. I'll leave the switch on for now. Just make sure that if there are ever guests over to close it."

I nodded in understanding.

"Why would you need a study here?" I asked, curious.

"It's become really difficult to try to get some information with all the Organization members snooping around," he explained. "The Organization used to be the tie that binds, but now, I can't even trust anyone anymore. I'd have to do my research here, in secret."

I laughed. He eyed me curiously.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

He paused for a minute, doubting even himself.

"Frankly, I don't know," he answered.

"So what's that big double door room?" I asked.

"That's a large ballroom. There's a balcony at the end there too," he explained.

"Why would we need a ballroom?" I asked again.

"How would I know?" he complained. "It's good to be prepared."

"Okay...then where's that door lead to?" I asked, pointing to the door straight ahead of me.

"That's just a multi-purpose room," he said. "A rather large one at that."

We stepped through the door and into a long and relatively narrow hallway. There was only a single door in front of us, so I naturally walked that way.

"Hold on," Zexion said. "What would you like?"

He pointed at a narrow hole in the top left corner of the room, just enough to fit a piece of paper through.

"Just write whatever you want on a page of your lexicon and feed it through there," he said.

"I'm too tired right now to change," I responded.

He groaned.

"Alright, what would you like to see?" he asked.

"Something comfortable?" I asked.

Believe it or not, he literally pulled out a page and wrote "something comfortable" on it. The page flew itself into the hole and a green light shone.

"There, let's go," he said.

Passing through that door, I found myself in an elliptical room. There were several windows, and a single door in the room. There was a massive bar-like counter in the center with large arrangements of sofas and coffee tables around the whole room.

"Wow, that's certainly comfortable," I said, amazed at how accurately the room had interpreted my words.

I really just wanted something to eat and relax in.

"What happens if you just go in?" I asked.

"Door won't open," he said.

"What if I teleported in?" I asked.

"Won't let you, it's impervious to magic," Zexion said. "The room at the far end will always be a guest bathroom, no matter what this room is. It can produce a rather nice swimming pool."

I nodded in understanding.

"Good, now that's it for the tour," he said.

"That's it?" I asked, disappointed at the size of the place. "No more?"

"Of course there's more to the mansion, but I don't really want to use anymore than we need," he explained. "I'm sure this is more than enough to satisfy your needs. There's a bathroom in your room, and the counter in the middle serves as a kitchen. Kanon will cook for you if you need it."

"I'm not sure if a Nobody can cook," I said.

He chuckled.

"I wouldn't be so sure," he said. "Whenever you need him, just call his name and he will appear."

"Alright," I said, pretty sure I'd gotten most of it.

"I have to RTC right now," he said. "Have to report to Saix. You just take a rest, alright?"

"Oh, okay," I said. "Bye."

I was a little reluctant to see him leave. He simply stepped behind me, opening the door in which we came in from and closing it behind him. It was a couple of moments until I could no longer feel his presence nearby. I sighed, I would miss his company.

"Kanon!" I called, eager to prove Zexion wrong.

The Nobody materialized out of thin air, though he pretty much looked like a human in every way.

"How can I help you, Master?" he asked.

"Could you cook up some food for me?" I asked.

"But of course, Master," he answered. "What will it be for today?"

"Hm..." I said, thinking. "Anything's fine, just make it good."

"Understood, Master," he said.

Kanon quickly went to the "kitchen" and started to rummage around with the tools. I wasn't really bothered to see what he was doing, so I just collapsed on one of the sofas in the room.

In a quick minute or so, he was already done.

"Here you are, Master. The finest steak in the country," Kanon said. "Please enjoy."

I looked at the scrumptious slab of meat, smacking my lips. I bit and tore into the steak viciously, almost like I was a wild animal of some kind. I'd missed out on lunch, so naturally, I was hungry. What I didn't expect was that the steak was truly extraordinary in taste! It was like a breath of fresh air, food for the angels etc. Darn it, why'd Zexion always have to be right?

"Wow!" I exclaimed after finishing. "This is amazing! Where did you learn how to cook like this?"

"Master was the one who gave me all the knowledge I have," he answered.

I nodded.

"What else can you do?" I asked, suddenly interested.

"Well I expect that I'll be able to do anything you'd like me to do. I can always be taught," he said.

For some reason, he reminded me of a robot. Oh well. He made for interesting company.

After the sudden wave of curiousity passed me, I was all tired again and eager to get some sleep.

"I'm going to go sleep now, Kanon," I said. "Thank you for the food."

"You're very welcome, Master," Kanon replied.

I swear I saw a smile on his face.

Anyways, I made my way out of the room, and continued upstairs to the ballroom level. From there, I looked at either side and groaned at the number of stairs there appeared to be. I didn't really want to climb it, so I phased and teleported myself using Marluxia from the ballroom level to the platform connecting the two rooms at the top. I kind of enjoyed the trail of pink flower petals that the process left. However, I became extremely exhausted. My vision kind of blurred and I took a quick look to my right and left, deciding that the door on the right was mine. How? The door on the left kind of mentally pushed me off when I tried to approach it. I didn't even try to resist. I just walked into the door on the right. My room.

It looked pretty normal at first glance. A bed, a wardrobe, a bathroom and a desk. I didn't even get a chance to really examine my room properly. All I did was make for the bed, throwing myself on it. Poor bed.

I fell asleep within a few miliseconds.

* * *

Twelve pairs of eyes converged upon a single chair, which became suddenly swallowed by darkness. Two seconds later, the darkness dissipated and a hooded figure sat on the chair.

"You're late," Saix said coldly.

"Sorry," Zexion replied.

The members all turned back towards their leader, who began to speak.

"Our forces in the various worlds have thinned and the Heartless grow more and more restless with each passing day," Xemnas began. "Everyone is going to have to do more work to make up for our lack of Nobodies."

There were a couple of groans that echoed in the room, the most noticeable one belonging to Demyx.

"Zexion," Xemnas called.

"Yes?" he said without looking up.

"How is the secret weapon coming along?" he asked.

There was a short pause before he answered.

"Fine. I suspect that in less than a week's time, she'll be able to carry out missions just like the rest of us," Zexion said.

Xemnas nodded.

"Very good," he said.

"However," Zexion continued, turning to look at Xemnas, "she cannot do missions alone; there must be at least one person accompanying her at all times."

Xemnas' expression changed.

"And why is that?" he asked.

"She's what you would call...defective. She's liable to run out of energy at any time and completely break down. Someone has to care for...no...bring her back if she does," Zexion explained. "However, she will be able to do missions twice as fast as anyone of us."

"I see," Xemnas said. "What's she doing now?"

"She's resting as we speak," Zexion answered.

Xemnas closed his eyes.

"No matter, I trust Saix will be able to come up with a fitting schedule for this arrangement," Xemnas finally said.

"Yes, my lord," Saix said.

"That's all for today then," Xemnas continued. "Dismissed."

The hooded figures slowly disappeared one by one. Zexion gripped the edge of his chair tightly.

"Lexaeus, a word with you, if you please," he said.

Lexaeus nodded and the two disappeared from their chairs.

* * *

The two men stood silently, neither daring to speak first. Hours passed.

"What did you want with me, Zexion?" Lexaeus finally asked.

"Lexaeus..." Zexion started. "What is a heart?"

Lexaeus' eyes opened wide at the question.

"What?" he asked, thinking he had misheard.

"Why do we need hearts?" Zexion asked again, half-crazed.

There was a long pause.

"Zexion...you..." Lexaeus started, closing his eyes and sighing. "You of all people should know that we need hearts to feel anything. That's what the Organization is for. It's the reason for our existence, to finish Kingdom Hearts. Now if you're done asking me ridiculous questions that you already know the answers to, I have work to do."

Lexaeus faded into the darkness, leaving Zexion alone in his room.

"I know," Zexion said aloud to himself. "But why is it that I feel this strange 'attackment' to her?"

He chuckled to himself, sitting down on his bed and contemplating.


	14. Mission Time

Chapter 14 ~ Mission Time

The next week flew by pretty quickly.

My days became relatively repetitive. Get up, go to school, eat lunch on a tree, talk to Nina, go home, get schooled by Zexion (or more like beaten mercilessly).

The fake car crash incident with my parents finallly happened. Apparently they were on a business trip, bringing my sister because they loved her, when they got drunk at a party, causing a massive traffic accident on highway. Their poor orphaned child (that's me), was adopted by a kind, rich business owner in town (that's Axel).

I put the newspaper down and stared at Zexion accusingly. I'd gotten way too much pity dumped onto me at school.

"Couldn't you have made it less dramatic?" I asked.

"It's more fun this way," he answered. "They're currently halfway across the Atlantic, on a flight to Iceland."

"Oh really. Couldn't you have made it a bit farther? Maybe, Antartica?" I asked, hopeful.

He chuckled.

"You're so mean," he concluded.

"And you aren't?" I asked.

We both knew that it was a rhetorical question, but that didn't diminish from the sarcasm at all.

"Today makes the week mark," he said.

"Yep, on my way back to the World that Never Was," I said, staring at the magnificent ceiling.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"Naturally," I responded.

To be honest, I was a bit scared. Sure he'd trained me with every existing technique that he knew, but it just couldn't compare to the natural feel for battle that some people had.

Without giving me a chance to get another complaint in, he led me back to the privy room with no windows, opening a portal. He motioned for me to go in. I gulped, phased, and then stepped inside the portal.

I'd gotten a lot more accustomed to the darkness since I met him. In fact, I was starting to like the darkness more than the light; I felt far more comfortable in the former than the latter.

Before I could go on philosophizing about the light and dark balance in our world, we'd already arrived at our destination. I felt like I was suddenly dumped out of a vacuum cleaner into a foreign world. Honestly, the castle never failed to amaze me no matter how many times I saw it.

At first, I was consumed by the beauty of the castle. Shortly after, I realized that I was alone.

_Haha. Let's begin with a nice test, shall we?_

I groaned. He was going to exhaust me before I started. Since practicing, I could maintain my form while constantly moving on average for about thirty minutes before I completely wore myself out. That's a short amount of time, mind you.

I tried to tell him to stop with the trials and cut me some slack, but he was already gone.

I sighed and made my way up into the castle. Luckily, I remembered my way around.

I crossed the ethereal bridge and made my way into the castle. I didn't try to speed myself up, I just walked casually, saving what little energy I had for the actual mission that I'd probably have to do today.

I stepped into the center of the elevator, immediately tensing up at the sight of the lesser Nobodies. I stood crouched, ready to strike at a moment's notice, but they seemed to ignore me and just continued doing their business.

_I did tell you that they wouldn't listen to you because you're not a Nobody, but they're not going to attack you either._

Good to know.

_**If you're going to drop in and tell me pointless things, why don't you just...?**_

But he was already gone. I was really annoyed by now.

The elevator stopped and looking upwards, I saw the switch that I was supposed to trigger. Didn't it bring back memories? Flying lexicons came to mind. Anyways, now that I was more experienced, a simple gust of wind probably would've done the job, but I wanted to have a bit more fun.

A lexicon materialized in my hand. (No, the thought of throwing it never crossed my mind again.) I copied his demonstration at the mansion, sending a couple of pages upward, which wrapped around the switch, pulling it downwards.

The elevator shook violently, and then continued moving upwards. I dismissed the lexicon and laughed to myself. Ten bucks says if he was beside me, he would've chuckled.

_**Twenty bucks says you chuckled wherever you are.**_

I wasn't expecting a reaction, so I was surprised when he responded to my random comment.

_Darn it._

And then he was gone again. I was rather satisfied with myself.

The elevator stopped and I walked forward, into the circle of rooms. On the right side, I counted 2 from the left and knocked.

He opened the door.

"Good job," was his simple response.

I grinned.

"Now then, let's go report for your first mission," he said.

Oh great, the part I'd been dreading. Reading my troubled expression, he reassured me.

"Well I don't really know who you're going to be teamed up with, but you won't be alone," he said. "Don't worry, you'll be absolutely fine."

I nodded, feeling a bit better.

For once, he led the way, walking onto the center platform and into the mission center. The place hadn't changed much from last time, except there was only two people in the room apart from the two of us. Saix was standing in the middle, and Xigbar was seated on a sofa.

_**Why are there only two others?**_

_We're understaffed, the rest are all gone for the day._

_**Oh.**_

He walked over to the center, greeting Saix.

"Oh, hello Xion," Saix said.

"Hello," I responded with apparent resentment. He didn't seem to care.

"Today you'll be paired up with Xigbar," he said. "I've already briefed him on the mission, so you can just ask him for the details."

I nodded quickly.

"Well if you're ready, you guys can go," he said without emotion.

Xigbar got up and walked over to me, hooking his arm around my head and lugging me by the neck. Ow.

"Let's go, kiddo," he said.

I didn't get a chance to say anything before he opened a portal, dragging me through it with him. I saw both Saix and Zexion staring at me before I was completely sucked into the darkness.

* * *

"You briefed him on everything?" Zexion asked.

"Yes," Saix said. "Not that it's your concern. Get to your own mission."

Zexion scowled.

"Of course," he replied, barely concealing his anger.

He opened a portal with his hand and disappeared into the darkness.

"She'll be alright," he said, reassuring himself.

* * *

"Here we are," he said, letting go of me. "Welcome to the Land of Dragons."

I looked around me. What a change of scenery.

"What's your problem, kiddo?" he asked.

I gasped for air. I was shocked to see that the world looked so different from earth or even the World that Never Was. Actually, upon closer observation, the world was kind of like the earth. I mentioned this to Xigbar.

"Really? Wow, what a boring world you got," he said.

I couldn't help it but stare at the massive scar he had down his eye, and his eyepatch, but then I shook myself out of it.

"Alright then, we just need to get rid of these four Heartless today," Xigbar explained. "Those big guys near the mountain pass. Doesn't really matter how you do it, just eliminate them."

He pointed to a secluded area on the snowy mountain ledge. I had to squint using Xigbar's eyesight to make out a couple of black figures there. Luckily, there was nothing quite as large as the Heartless that I'd met at that port place.

"Let's not waste time and get this stupid mission done with," he said. "Oh, and put on your hood. Gotta blend in."

I seriously didn't think two hooded black figures could possibly blend in anywhere, but I obeyed him and put on my hood regardless.

"Do you talk?" he asked, a bit annoyed with the silence.

"Yes," I answered.

"Frankly, that's hard to believe," he said in response, running ahead. "Try to keep up."

I kept myself running after him at a natural pace. I didn't really want to waste all my energy before I even got to fight. Interestingly enough, as soon as I started running, I felt a sudden excitement overtake me. I closed my eyes.

It's good to be alive.

The next time I opened my eyes, Xigbar was already on the peak of the mountain, shooting at the Heartless. One down. Probably cheated with a portal somehow. I decided that I'd better get my butt up there too. I didn't want to be reported as useless.

Using Larxene's electricity for support, I ran forward with incredible speed. I pushed off from the ground and sprang into the air, sprouting massive flowered wings using Marluxia, and flew up to the mountain top. I looked back quickly, seeing a whole trail of flowers behind me that slowly withered as I kept progressing. I quickly wondered if it represented the energy I lost, but then I returned my focus to the task at hand. The pink-flowered angelic wings were not very inconspicuous, but they got the job done faster. All that training with Zexion really did pay off.

I purposely stopped over Xigbar to get his attention, and sure enough, he stopped fighting when he felt a towering shadow over him. Looking up, he saw me floating there, wings flapping.

"Wow," he said in disbelief. "That's totally wicked!"

He was interrupted by a Heartless trying to thwack him on the head. He quickly jumped out of the way and returned to the battle. I looked down at the Heartless. They looked relatively small compared to one I saw at the port area. I smiled, this would be as easy as pie.

I crystallized some of the flower pedals in my wings, shooting them at the Heartless below. They weren't even prepared for an aerial attack. Before two of them could even look up, they had already faded out of existence. The one remaining stared up just in time and dodged the falling crystallized shards, only to get hit in the face with Xigbar's attack.

After we were sure that they were all gone, Xigbar turned upwards to talk to me.

"That's amazing, kiddo," he yelled.

I circled around in the sky, slowly descending. When I was relatively close to the ground, I wrapped the wings around myself and then willed the flower pedals to fade away and scatter. I dropped to the ground.

"Nice job," he said, patting, well more like, hitting me on the back.

"Thanks," I muttered, yawning.

"That turned out way faster than I expected. For your first time, that was pretty darn decent," Xigbar said. "Alright then, let's RTC."

I nodded and he opened a portal.

That wasn't so hard. In fact, Zexion had prepared me for a lot worse. I was still feeling tired though. Well, the good thing was, I didn't collapse until we got back to the castle. The embarrassing thing was, it was Saix that I collapsed in front of.


	15. Connection to Humanity

Chapter 15 ~ Connection to Humanity

"This is the third time this week that I've had to restore her energy," Saix complained.

"She does her work efficiently," Zexion argued. "Could you find a better replacement for what she does for the Organization?"

"This restoration process alone is too time-consuming," Saix said.

The two men worked around a single floating body, covered in the moon's protection. All of a sudden, the glow disappeared and the body laid itself down softly on the bed.

"There, all done," Zexion said, relaxing.

"Hmph," Saix said.

My eyelids fluttered open, slowly taking in the two men who were staring at me. Saix quickly stormed out of the room, leaving me alone with Zexion. To be honest, I'm glad he did.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Meh...could be better," I said. "Could be worse."

"Well, at least your energies are starting to stack," he said. "You won't get tired as easily."

I nodded in approval.

"Hopefully Saix will be patient enough to not tear me apart until then," I said sarcastically, laughing.

I looked over at Zexion who had a painful look on his face.

"I'm fine, really," I said.

I don't think he heard though.

* * *

A couple of months later, I was able to maintain the form for about a couple of hours. More than enough to do several missions in a row without rest. I was relatively pleased with my progress, really. Even Saix cut me some slack now that I proved to be somewhat "useful" in his books. He still needed to heal me from time to time, but the needs became less and less often.

Of course, Zexion and I still needed to maintain our covers in the school, so most of the time, we'd spend the day at school and the night running errands for the Organization. I tried to get in some sleep whenever I could. As for him, he gave up on sleep. He spent all his free time holed up in his room doing who knows what. I didn't dare try to find out.

It was only when a girl approached him one day that things got interesting.

"Oh, Rion," a girl said.

"Hello," Zexion answered politely.

"Did you hear? Student council elections are coming up. You should run. You'd so win," the girl said.

"Is that so?" Zexion said. "Hm...thanks for the information."

"Well, see you later," the girl said, happily skipping off.

I think he just made her day by responding to her.

_Student council elections, eh?_

_**Why would you bother? Those positions are all for those stuck-up idiots who are too full of themselves.**_

_Well, as the president of the student body, I'd get the information I want for the research I'm doing on humans a lot faster and more efficiently._

_**Is that what you do in your room?**_

_Part of it. I think I will run._

_**You'd get chosen for sure. Our school's 70% female.**_

_Hm...let's run together._

_**What?**_

_It'll be...interesting. A co-presidency within your school. There's nothing against it in the student handbook._

_**That'd just be awkward. I'd rather run for vice-prez.**_

_Alright, if you would rather. Then it's settled._

_**Hey! That doesn't mean I'm going to.**_

_No turning back now._

I groaned. He dragged me to the student council meeting after school and made me sign my name for vice-president elections. I would've made the paper spontaneously combust, but it would've looked weird on a security camera.

_**I won't even win.**_

_Like you said, the school's 70% female._

I winced at his unintended implication there. He frowned at my thought.

_You know what I mean. I'm always with you. Girls like me. Girls will vote for you. It's simple the way humans function, really._

I tried to toss the other thought out of my mind. Frankly, it wasn't easy.

_**Ever heard of "jealousy"? The girls will hate me even more because I'm always with you.**_

_Jealousy works both ways, genius._

I gave up. It's impossible to win an argument with this guy.

"Anyways," I said, changing the subject. "What's your call on what I said this morning?"

His angelically sarcastic smile immediately changed to an indifferent look.

"It's your decision," he said. "I don't approve, but in the end, it's your choice. You might only be putting her in more danger."

"Oh, come on!" I protested. "The girl spends so much time with us that she practically reeks of Nobodies. The Heartless could easily seek her out if they wanted to. She has a right to know."

"Hmph," Zexion said. "I originally intended for you to only use her as your sole connection to humanity. I didn't count on you wanting to pour all of your deepest and darkest secrets into her as well."

"I guess you miscalculated," I stated.

He scowled. I think that the fact that he miscalculated upset him more than anything else. To be honest, I felt strongly about my standpoint on this issue. I'd made this decision for her sake...actually, that's not true at all, it was more for me than her. I'm a selfish person, really. I just desperately need someone human that I can just spill out my heart's worries and thoughts too. A "best friend." After all, I'm partly human.

"Suit yourself," he finally said.

I smiled, glad that he'd accepted my decision.

"Today?" I asked.

"Better today than tomorrow," he said sarcastically. "Before I miscalculate something else because of the delay. Great, now I have to go order a limo for the day."

He walked ahead, pulling out his cellphone and muttering to himself.

_Hmph. Miscalculation._

I guess in all the confusion, he forgot to block me out of his thoughts. I couldn't help it but sneak in a little laugh there.

I turned around, looking for her.

"Nina!" I called as I saw her walking towards me.

I'd told her to meet me after school at the tree, which was now our "usual spot." We'd spent every day there for the past couple of months.

Nina waved, and I winced as I saw her stumble on a large rock. She dropped a couple of her books and struggled to pick them up. I ran towards her (at a human pace of course) and helped her out.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine," she replied, out of breath.

We picked up the last of her books and walked over to join Zexion.

"Hello Rion," she greeted.

"Hi," he replied coldly.

Awkward silence.

"So, I'm...uh...coming over today, right?" she asked.

"Yep," I answered.

I'd already decided to invite her over regardless of his decision on the matter. If he was insistent against my original plans, it would have just been one heck of a sleepover; however, he ended up letting me proceed with what I wanted to do.

_**Don't need to pull the switch to hide the upper level then?**_

_No, I don't think that'll be necessary with what you're going to do. Alright, the limo's going to be here in less than 10 minutes or so._

_**That fast?**_

_Hey, I have all the money in the world._

I rolled my eyes. He was clearly pleased with himself.

A couple of minutes later, a large, elegant black car rolled into the school parking lot. It was swerving like mad at the turns and driving so fast that you'd think the driver was drunk.

"What did you say to him?" I demanded.

"1,000 bucks if he got here in less than 3 minutes," Zexion responded.

I think Nina would've collapsed on the ground if I hadn't been supporting her.

"Don't worry," Zexion said. "I'll make sure to have him drive a lot slower when we're in it."

I don't think his words were very reassuring. Anyways, I got into the limo first, followed by Nina, leaving Zexion for last. He sat near the front, barking directions at the driver.

"Keep it under 60 for the whole ride and I'll pay you 10,000 bucks in total," Zexion said.

The speedometer never went over 30 for the whole trip.

"Are you guys like insanely rich?" Nina asked quietly.

"Not really," I explained. "He just likes to show off."

Zexion chuckled in a corner.

_Humans are like dogs. You hold money in front of their faces and they'll obey you without question._

_**True.**_

Still, I think the driver drove a bit too slowly.

I'd say it took about 7 years for the car to finally arrive at our mansion. Nina's eyes opened wide at the sight. I didn't blame her. I had the same reaction when I first saw this place. It's a pity I won't be able to show her the castle though.

Zexion pulled 20,000 bucks out of his bag.

"Keep the change," Zexion said.

The driver's eyes opened wide at the massive amount of cash. He wouldn't stop repeating "thank you" until we were out of sight. I don't think that it mattered to him that the money was an illusion.

Zexion stood at the door to the mansion, pulling it open for the two of us.

"After you," he said, motioning for us to go first.

"My, my...aren't we a gentleman?" I teased.

He smiled sheepishly.

I stepped into the place first, flicked on the lights and looked towards Nina, who tried very hard to conceal her shock. I'll have to say, she failed miserably.

"Wow!" she exclaimed. "You guys live here?"

"Yep," I answered, nodding.

She was overtaken by curiousity and moved to open the door to the narrow hallway.

"Hold on," I said, grabbing her shoulder. "Ze...Rion has to go prepare it first."

I almost slipped.

"Oh, alright," she said.

"There's no need. I'm already done," Zexion said.

I glanced at him questioningly.

"When did you...?" I asked.

_I was holding the door for you guys. Nina was marveling over the size of the house, and I teleported there and back._

"It's called a remote control," he lied.

_**What did you make it?**_

_Something comfortable._

I laughed. My mistake.

"What are you laughing at?" Nina asked.

"Um..." I said, flustered, "...your face!"

Zexion almost laughed there. I shot him an angry glare, shutting him up.

"You've been staring like that with your jaw dropped for the past five minutes," I lied.

"Huh. I guess that is rather funny," she said, falling for it.

I let out a sigh of relief. She eyed me weirdly.

"Alright, let's go," I said.

I lead the way through the door, opening it for the other two.

Zexion walked ahead opening the second door for the two of us. I think she almost fainted at the room's rendition of "something comfortable."

Kanon was crouched at the center of room, busy polishing the floor or something.

"Hello, Masters," Kanon said.

"Hello, Kanon," Zexion and I said in unison.

"He's our butler," I added quickly.

"You have a butler?" Nina asked.

I nodded.

"Master, I have an urgent mission request from..." Kanon started.

Zexion nodded quickly. I took that as my cue to eavesdrop.

_**From who?**_

_Saix. An unusually large Heartless has surfaced in Twilight Town. Axel and Roxas are already there. Saix wants us to back them up._

**Now? Of all the horrible timing.**

_Kanon will take care of her. We have to go. Besides, it might actually be easier for you to explain to her if we do it this way._

I groaned.

"You'll have to leave immediately," Kanon said, providing a nice transition.

"Um...Nina," I quickly said. "Rion and I have to go take care of some urgent business. Kanon will take care of anything you need alright. Just wait. A couple of hours at most. I'm sorry."

She quickly nodded.

"Come on," Zexion said, grabbing me by the wrist.

I was dragged by him into the room where we usually went when we needed to travel between worlds.

He created a portal with a wave of his hand.

"Directly to Twilight Town," he said.

"I'm not at my best right now," I complained. "I might faint halfway through."

"How long have you got?" he asked urgently.

"An hour, give or take a few minutes," I answered.

"Should be enough," he said, "what...with four Organization members on a single Heartless? Have they gone mad? The thing must be gigantic."

Without another word, we stepped through the portal and into Twilight Town.


	16. An Old Friend

Chapter 16 ~ An Old Friend

Oh crud. This sure brought back memories, except this one was double in size compared to the last one since I saw.

Zexion and I arrived in Twilight Town, only to find the whole city surrounded by a cloud of darkness.

"What the..." I started.

Zexion pointed to the top of the hill, Central Station.

"Over there!" he yelled quickly.

There was a concentrated swirling mass of black in that direction, so Zexion and I immediately headed there. He always tended to be a bit slower than me, but I kept by his side, running at his pace.

When we first turned the corner and the clock tower at Central Station came into view, there was only one thing that came to mind.

"Oh...crud," we said in unison.

There was a Heartless of epic porportions standing in front of us. I think it was the same type as the one I saw at Port Royal (yes, I learned the name of the place from my missions), but it was AT LEAST twice as big, maybe even bigger. Its sadistic yellow eyes stared down at us, inviting us to challenge him.

* * *

Nina shifted in her place, looking at her watch as the minutes slowly passed.

It'd already been an hour since they'd left. This whole situation made her feel uncomfortable. She thought she would get up, leave and maybe come back another day.

Little did she know that it wasn't that easy.

"Excuse me, Miss," Kanon said. "Why are you getting up?"

"They seem to be a bit busy right now, so I'll just come back another time," Nina said in response, walking towards the door.

"I'm afraid that won't do, Miss," Kanon said.

Nina was a bit scared by the way the butler had phrased his response. She had good reason to be too, because at that moment, the butler pulled out a pistol from under his shirt. Nina gasped as he pointed it at her.

"The Master has expressly wished for me to keep you from leaving," Kanon said.

Nina's hand immediately moved for her cellphone. Kanon's finger tightened on the trigger.

"Please," he said. "Put the cellphone down and sit down, or I'll shoot you."

Nina shook involuntarily and without saying a word, she put her cellphone down on the ground.

"Now come back and sit here," he commanded.

She did as she was told.

"That's better," Kanon said, putting away his pistol again.

Of course Nina was scared out of her mind, but she concentrated on a single thing, and that single thing gave her strength.

"It was Rion that prompted the butler to prevent me from leaving," she decided. "It was Rion's fault. It wasn't Ino."

She felt bad for distrusting Rion too, but it made her feel more comfortable than if she blamed Ino, so she did whatever she liked.

"Ino..." Nina whispered, her voice shaking. "Help me..."

Regardless of the incident, she still trusted her with all her heart.

* * *

"What the heck do you think you're doing there?" Axel yelled, turning our attention to the ground. "Start helping! This thing absorbs other Heartless, so it will get larger indefinetly. We have to destroy it, quick!"

Roxas in the meantime, was flying at it from the clock tower. I shook myself out of it and got to work.

It was just like any other mission...well except the thing was a heck of a lot bigger.

"Zexion!" I yelled.

"I got it!" he replied.

Zexion materialized his lexicon, and got to work paralyzing the damn thing. He had an extremely useful ability that allowed him to break the opponent's consciousness, rendering him...or it in this case, immobile for a short amount of time. Most of his other illusions were only useful on people, because they affect the mind. Since Heartless act on instinct, he wasn't able to do much with the rest of his abilities.

While he worked on it, I shifted into Vexen, freezing the Heartless' legs to limit his movement. Axel, seeing the opportunity, threw his chakrams at the ice, shattering it and causing the Heartless to growl in pain. You put fire and ice together, and you get a heck of a lot of pain.

I then changed to Lexaeus, because I figured Zexion would be done with the paralysis by then, and Lexaeus was a heavy attacker.

"Done," he said, sweating a bit.

The Heartless collapsed on the ground, making a thunderous sound that echoed in our ears.

Roxas and I both leapt at it when we heard the cue. All four of us started sawing at the Heartless when it was "unconscious," but in a few seconds the giant thing got up again, growing to be even bigger than before.

"It's not done yet?" Roxas asked in disbelief. "Even after all that?"

"Obviously not," I answered sarcastically.

He didn't have time to respond, because the Heartless' fists came smashing down relentlessly at him. He jumped and spun to dodge. Soon enough, the Heartless was moving in a circle, punching whatever it could see. All four of us were too busy dodging to retaliate. I was starting to wear out from all this jumping.

Finally, the Heartless turned its focus onto Axel, who was waving his chakrams around in an attempt to attract its attention. Apparently it worked.

Roxas took advantage of the opening and jumped onto the wall of the clock tower, using it as momentum to leap onto the Heartless' back, stabbing it mercilessly. The Heartless groaned and tried to toss Roxas off of its back. Axel, Zexion and I were forced to retreat from its violent swinging fit.

Then, all of a sudden, Roxas lost his hold on the Heartless and was knocked backwards. It was an ugly sight.

"Roxas!" Axel yelled, unable to do anything.

I quickly changed to Marluxia, springing into the air and teleporting from my position to catch the falling Roxas.

There goes more of my energy.

"Thanks," he murmured as I caught him.

"No prob..." I started.

I was interrupted by the Heartless' first, which swung at us from behind. I swung Roxas to the other side, taking the hit for him (ouch) and then I was forced to sprout wings to avoid the second blow that the Heartless had intended for us.

"Are you okay?" Roxas asked as he heard me panting.

"Yeah..." I said, wearily. "I'm totally fine."

I suck at lying.

Anyways, I dropped Roxas off at the clock tower and flew back to Zexion and Axel's position, willing the wings to slowly fade and disappear. Zexion was immediately concerned with my weary expression.

"How many minutes?" he asked urgently.

"None," I said. "I'd probably fall asleep right now if I phased back."

Zexion cursed under his breath. Axel on the other hand, had caught the Heartless' attention again, lighting up the whole area underneath the Heartless in flames. The Heartless moaned in pain, and slowly started to shrink in size.

Axel threw his chakram up to the clock tower, and Roxas leapt off the tower, leaping for the chakram. He managed to get a foot on it and immediately leapt off again for more momentum. He charged at the Heartless, using his limit attack.

Axel sighed.

"And that's the end," Axel said.

Zexion and I exchanged quick looks.

_That's not going to be enough._

_**I know.**_

"Zexion!" I called urgently. "I don't have enough strength to fly again, or get up there for that matter."

"Alright, I'll back you up!" he said, nodding.

A thousand pages flew out of his lexicon, providing a perfect staircase for me to climb. I jumped from page to page, circling upwards towards the top of the station.

Roxas was just finishing up with his limit, and landed on the ground with a sense of satisfaction.

"ROXAS!" Axel cried out. "Behind you!"

He spun around quickly, gasping when the Heartless turned on him, leaving him completely in its mercy. Roxas fell backwards and struggled to stand again, but he was completely trapped by fear for a second there.

Damn. I wouldn't make it in time. I quickly debated whether I should proceed with flying or speed-running, and decided that the latter would consume less energy. I phased into Larxene and ran the rest of the way up Zexion's paper staircase. When I reached the top, I looked down and saw that I was just a couple of feet above the top of the Heartless, but that didn't matter. I'd made it. Sure I was dead tired, but I'd made it.

"That's a wrap," I said, shifting into Roxas and leaping off of the highest page.

By the way, freefalling feels real nice when you're extraordinarily tired.

I materialized the keyblade and lodged it in the Heartless' head. The Heartless moaned in pain and the earth shook violently as the Heartless fell on its knees and to the ground. I jumped off of the Heartless, landing on the ground right in front of it with a smile on my face.

The Heartless looked at the group of us with an intense, undescribable kind of hate and made a move to crush me under its hand.

I didn't try to avoid it. I merely stood up straight and turned to face it. Both Zexion and I knew that it was over.

"Xion!" Axel screamed.

I chuckled.

"It's alright," I said.

The hand of the Heartless was only inches away from my face when the darkness suddenly dissipated and the Heartless faded out of existence. I took a few steps forward, catching my falling keyblade. It faded away in my hands. I immediately stumbled backwards because of fatigue, and thankfully, Axel ran over to support me. I couldn't help but notice the indifferent, yet arguably jealous look that Zexion had on his face.

"Nice job!" Axel said, complimenting me.

Roxas slowly got up from his position.

"Thanks for saving me," he muttered.

"No problem," I said, almost falling asleep.

Then I suddenly remembered that I'd left my friend alone on earth with a creepy butler in an empty mansion.

"Oh shoot!" I said, energy suddenly returning to me. "I have to go...um...take care of something."

Zexion responded by opening a portal.

"Thanks," I said. "You're not coming?"

"I'd rather not be there," he said.

Axel and Roxas eyed us curiously. I rolled my eyes at them.

"Suit yourself," I said, stepping through the portal.

And in an instant, I was gone, the three men left behind.

"Where's she gone in a hurry?" Axel asked.

There was a short pause, followed by an unpredictable answer.

"Home," Zexion said, staring at the sunset.

"Well, anyways, that's an awfully nice way to tell her that she's not allowed to join us in our meeting," Axel said, wiping the silly expression off his face and putting on a serious look.

"Does what I say matter to you?" Zexion asked.

"You planned whatever she had to do today for her, didn't you? You didn't have the heart to break it to her that she isn't really considered a member of the Organization," Axel deducted.

Zexion looked away, scowling.

"You're right for once, Axel. I don't have a heart, and what of it?" he said, avoiding Axel's main point.

"You are indeed a cloaked schemer," Axel concluded.

Zexion didn't say anything.

"Come on," Roxas said. "Cut him some slack, Axel. Let's just go hear what the Leader has to say and be done with it."

Axel was still staring intently at Zexion, despite Roxas' protests.

"You know, Zexion," Axel started again. "You let yourself get too attached to her, and you'll just be disappointed in the end."

"Hmph. And who are you to decide for me?" Zexion shot back.

"I'm just saying," Axel said. "I've heard quite a bit from Saix."

"Axel! Stop it!" Roxas said. "What are you guys even talking about?"

Zexion chuckled quietly.

"I'll keep your 'advice' in mind, Axel," Zexion said in barely a whisper.

And with a motion of his hand, he disappeared into the darkness as well.

* * *

Remind me to kill Zexion later. Instead of dumping me in the secluded room near the entrance of the mansion, he dumped me into the multi-purpose room. Oh yeah, guess who was right in front of me when I entered the room. Kanon and Nina.

They both immediately turned up at the sudden darkness that infiltrated the room.

Nina gasped, immediately turning to run for the door. Kanon pulled out his pistol again, which stopped her in her place.

I groaned, I was way too tired for this.

"Welcome back, Master," Kanon said.

"Kanon, have you been threatening her with a pistol?" I asked.

"Was it wrong of me to do so?" Kanon asked.

"Of course, just let her go if she wants. She can just come back another day," I said.

"Understood," Kanon said, putting away the pistol.

I was pretty sure Nina would've ran straight out of the mansion if she wasn't so paralyzed with fear. She collapsed onto the ground, keeping her eye on both "the mysterious black figure" and Kanon at the same time.

"Don't threaten any of our future guests with a pistol, Kanon," I quickly said. "No exceptions."

"Understood. Shall I use a machine gun next time then?" he asked.

Nina shook violently with fear. I groaned. Just how much intelligence (or lack thereof) did Zexion put in this guy?

"No weapons," I said, trying to make my sentences as simple as possible. "No threatening. If they want to leave, let them leave."

"Understood, Master," Kanon said.

I sighed with relief, it was only then that Nina began to speak.

"W-W-Who...a-are you?" Nina asked, shuddering with fear.

Huh? It was only then that I realized that my hood was still on.

"Oh sorry," I said, taking off my hood. "My mistake."

Nina gasped at the new sight.

"Are you...?" she started.

But I cut her off. I was too tired to answer her questions.

"Look here, alright Nina?" I said, walking over to the couch closest to her and collapsing on it. "If I fall asleep, just give me 5 minutes to sleep. If I don't wake up in 5 minutes, wake me up, alright?"

Five minutes worth of energy should be more than enough to convince her of the existence of Nobodies with. I hope.

She nodded quickly, her eyes still shocked at the sight.

"Thank you," I said, phasing back into a human.

The darkness enveloped me for a second and disappeared shortly after. Instead of the strange mysterious figure that was there a second ago, Nina saw a perfectly normal human girl. A human girl that she called a friend.

"It really is you," she whispered.

I didn't hear though. Like I guessed, I fell fast asleep.


	17. Identity Revealed

Chapter 17 ~ Identity Revealed

I had a relatively good feel for the passing time now. Five minutes passed, and my eyes shot open, much to Nina's surprise. I was still tired of course, and I gave a great big yawn before I started explaining things.

"Alright, let's start," I said calmly.

"Hold on!" Nina interjected quickly. "Who are you, Ino, or someone else?"

I chuckled.

"Funny how you phrased your question," I said. "Anyways, could you just let me explain?"

"If you'll answer my question in your explanation," Nina said.

"Very well," I replied, turning to Kanon. "Could you bring a platter of sushi for her please? She hasn't had anything to eat for the past couple of hours."

"Yes, Master," Kanon said obediently, striding off to the counter in the center of the room.

"Wait...I'm not that hun..." Nina started.

Her stomach gave a loud grumble and we started to laugh at the sound. The room echoed of Nina's hearty laugh and my weary one.

"Well too bad, you're eating anyways," I said, trying to return to the matter at hand. "Now then, while Kanon is preparing our dinner, let's start."

Nina nodded and returned her attention to me.

"But promise me one thing, for old time's sake," I said. "You'll hear me out before making any far-fetched assumptions."

"Sure," she said.

I sighed, partly because I was tired and partly because I was glad that she was relaxed now. When I first came into the room, it looked like she could go into cardiac arrest in any second.

I smiled to myself for no reason whatsoever.

"Hm...how to begin," I said, thinking. "Alright..."

I started to explain about the existence of multiple worlds other than earth and how all these worlds were separate, yet remotely connected. The idea seemed to fascinate Nina, and she listened intently to every single one of my words. She'd always been keen on new scientific theories, and I bet she thought mine sounded so far-fetched that it was actually probably true.

I then continued on to explain about the Heartless and the Nobodies, and I think I lost her halfway through there.

"No hearts?" she asked. "How do they even live?"

"For Nobodies, a heart would merely act as a medium for their emotions," I explained.

"As in, without a heart, they can't feel anything?" Nina asked.

"Spot on," I confirmed. "Though I beg to differ, the rest of them are convinced of this fact."

"The rest of them?" Nina asked, raising an eyebrow.

I started to explain about the different types of Nobodies, and how there was a group that controls all the Nobodies called Organization XIII.

"Rion is a member of that organization," I explained.

Nina's eyes opened wide with shock.

"Then...he's a Nobody?" Nina asked.

I nodded.

"He can't feel anything? Anything at all?" Nina asked again.

I nodded once more.

"Organization XIII's No. VI. His real name is Zexion," I said.

"Zexion..." Nina repeated.

There was a short silence. I closed my eyes to give Nina a bit of time to take it all in.

"Then, what's your involvement with them? Are you a Nobody too?" Nina asked.

I laughed.

"I used to be a human," I said, causing Nina to gasp. "I'm still human, but now, I'm also able to pass as a Nobody."

"How?" Nina asked, geniunely curious.

I pulled out the necklace from under my shirt. Never went anywhere without it.

"I first met Zexion a couple of months ago, and he gave me this necklace," I said. "It allows me to call upon any of the Organization member's powers at any given time. That's how I got wrapped into their conflicts."

"How does it work?" Nina pressed on.

I chuckled. This was the part I'd saved my energy for.

"Could you hand me a piece of paper?" I asked Nina.

She nodded, rummaging through her backpack for a scrap piece of paper. Finally, she found one, placing it on the table.

I gently lent forward, picked it up, and held it up to Nina with both hands. She stared intently at the piece of paper. Suddenly, the words "watch carefully" wrote themselves on the page. She gasped in disbelief.

I grinned. I stood up and dropped the piece of paper, letting it slowly flutter onto the table; however, before it landed, I made the paper hover just a couple of inches above the table. I sat down, reached out and caught the page between two fingers. Nina watched as the page immediately split in two perfect halves. The two piece of paper set themselves down on the table.

I wasn't done yet though. I reached down and picked up one of the two halves, making it spontaneously combust in my hand. I touched the other half, and the full page reformed again. It was like nothing had ever happened.

Nina watched as the crests flashed and disappeared in the node at the center of the necklace. Book. Lance. Chakram. Claymore.

But now, I was really tired...again.

Nina's jaw dropped at the demonstration. Her mouth opened wide. I think all of her fear suddenly returned again.

I walked over to her seat, and took a seat beside her.

"It's alright. I'm still the Ino you know," I said, holding my hand out and staring her in the eyes.

I tried to act as comforting as possible. It's not easy when you're just not that type of person, you know?

She relaxed a bit, smiling and shaking my open hand.

"You know," she started. "I was a bit afraid, because I'd thought we'd gotten a bit apart lately. But now..."

She shook her head, causing a tear to fall from her eyes.

"Honestly though, please don't keep any secrets from me again. The unknown frightens me more than anything," she finished.

"Then you believe my story?" I asked.

She smiled at me.

"Don't worry, I trust you," she said. "Even if you're a part-time Nobody..."

We both laughed right there.

"You're still the best friend I ever had, Ino," she said. "Thanks for accepting me for who I am."

"You'd have to thank Rion for that," I said.

I relaxed on the back of my chair. Well, that was the best possible outcome I could've possibly hoped for. If I was in Nina's position, I probably would have gone insane and started throwing random objects around the room. Well, luckily I'm not.

"Kanon!" I barked. "Where's the sushi?"

"It was done a while ago, but I didn't want to interrupt your talk, so..." Kanon explained hastily.

"Well, we're done now," I said. "So bring it over."

"Yes, Master," Kanon said.

"Aren't we the slave driver?" Nina asked sarcastically as Kanon carried the large plate over.

We both watched quietly as Kanon exited the room and closed the door behind him.

"Just eat the food," I said, a bit annoyed at her remark.

"As long as you don't vaporize me halfway through my meal," she said in response.

I chuckled quietly.

"Honestly, I would if I weren't too tired," I responded, yawning.

I closed my eyes as Nina started to munch on the sushi.

"Hey, Ino," she said as she was munching on a california roll. "I'd like to talk to Zexion too. I feel bad about accusing him when Kanon pulled out a pistol at me."

I shuddered at the terrifying feeling that emanated from her in that split second.

"He doesn't even know," I said. "He won't care."

"But I want to talk to him," Nina protested. "Is he coming back soon?"

I stared up at the ceiling.

"I don't know," I said. "Probably not today. You can ask him at school on Monday."

"Oh...I see," Nina said, clearly disappointed.

I sat in silence as Nina finished the rest of the sushi.

"Don't you need to eat?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh...I don't really feel like it," I responded.

She read my troubled expression.

"Hey, Ino," she said again.

"Yeah?" I asked, turning to her.

"Do you like Rion...I mean Zexion?" she asked timidly.

"What?" I asked, suddenly taken by surprise.

There was a very long silence. A very very long one. I sat there, thinking about her question. To be honest, there was always that faint feeling of affection here and there, but I'd never really even considered it as a possibility. He'd never accept it, but no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, the truth was...

"Yes," I answered with a sudden surge of confidence. "Yes I do."

Another awkward pause.

"Does he know?" Nina asked.

"Probably," I answered. "He can read minds."

Nina nodded as if she'd guessed already. It'd probably explain the multitude of times that he'd accidentally answered a question of hers without being asked.

"Does he know though?" Nina asked again.

Thinking about it made me more depressed than before.

"Frankly, I don't know," I said.

"Do you ever plan on telling him?" Nina asked.

I groaned at her ignorance.

"Do you know what it feels like to not feel anything?" I demanded, my voice suddenly very loud. "Do you?"

Nina crouched back, scared by my sudden outburst.

"Sorry," I apologized.

"It's alright," Nina said. "I don't know what I'm talking about, sorry."

I sighed.

"Don't apologize. It's not your fault," I said.

Another long pause.

"You're right," I finally said. "I should at least try, shouldn't I?"

"It's your choice," she responded. "I can't say I understand the sadness in not being able to feel anything, but it seems you do, so you decide."

I remained silent. My thoughts and emotions were so twisted and scrambled in that moment that I didn't really even hear her. I shook my head. Today was supposed to be a girls' night. A sleepover. A fun day for both of us. The problem was, we hadn't done anything fun yet besides listening to my exceedingly boring and long rant.

"Well then," she said. "Let's get this sleepover on the way. You've left me alone in a room with a freaky butler for the past couple of hours. Time to atone."

Nina laughed, tapping me on the shoulder.

"Huh?" I asked, breaking out of my trance.

"Come on, let's go to your room," Nina said, grabbing me by the arm.

"You don't even know where you're going!" I said, joining in in the laughter.

It was a memorable night, really. To think that the one who gave me the courage I needed to speak up to Zexion would be the one who lacked courage herself. I chuckled to myself at the irony there.

"Thank you, Nina," I whispered, "for everything."

She probably didn't hear though. I didn't mind. In that moment, my mind was completely at peace. I'll have to admit, I'd almost forgotten how to feel this way.

I smiled wholeheartedly for the first time in my life.

* * *

"Wait...hold up. There were more than one of those big ones?" Demyx asked.

"For the third time, we were on cleanup duty with a giant Heartless too," Axel said. "Geez! Would it kill you to pay attention?"

Demyx frowned.

"Enough," Xemnas said. "Fortunately, we managed to get to the individual locations before the situations got too out of hand. We'll just have to send more scouts out and take extra precautions."

"And if another one appeared again?" Roxas asked.

"We'd dispatch someone to dispose of it, of course," Saix answered without a second thought.

"Since we've disposed of the large problems today," Xemnas started, "we're moving this month's vacation date to tomorrow. No new problems should have surfaced by then; however, I'll expect that everyone will work twice as hard when we get back."

"Is Maleficent up to something again?" Xigbar asked.

"Hm...I'll have someone check up on that one," Xemnas said.

"I'd wager that the high activity of the Heartless recently caused the formation of those massive beasts that we saw today," Luxord said. "What do you think, Zexion?"

"Huh?" Zexion said, looking up for the first time since the meeting had started. "Um...we're probably just reading into it too much. Things should return to normal tomorrow."

Lexaeus immediately turned and eyed him suspiciously. Zexion shot a dangerous glare back at him.

"No matter," Xemnas said, dismissing the topic. "This may become a bit of a problem if they keep appearing though. We're just going to have to develop better countermeasures. That should be it for today. Dismissed."


	18. Buster Keyblade

Chapter 18 ~ Buster Keyblade

Nina left early in the morning. I saw her to the door and whisked her into a limo with Kanon.

"Er..." Nina started, "are you sure this is alright? Your butler seems to be bipolar...and very dangerous for that matter."

"Don't worry, it'll be fine," I said, turning to Kanon. "Treat her with the utmost of respect and care."

"Yes, Master," Kanon replied, hurrying to the driver's seat.

"Uh oh," Nina said sarcastically as I pushed her into the limo.

"See you on Monday," I said waving.

She waved back through the car window as the limousine slowly pulled out of the mansion's driveway and around the corner. Then, she was gone, and I was all alone. In a creepy mansion. With no one to talk to.

For about 5 seconds.

"You look rather joyful today," a voice came from behind me.

I didn't even need to turn around to find out who it was, but I did anyways.

"And you, have probably been standing the whole time laughing while you knew perfectly well that Nina wanted to talk to you," I responded.

He was standing on the top of the staircase, hand on the railing and angelic face perfectly smooth.

"Naturally," he replied.

"So let's go, I'm all done here," I called.

"Well, since you asked so politely, I guess you can accompany me to Hollow Bastion," Zexion said.

I paused.

"Why Hollow Bastion?" I asked carefully.

"We've got a vacation today," Zexion said. "Usually, it's the thirteenth day of each month, but it's been moved this month because of the increasing number of problems that we've been having with the Heartless."

"Oh, all right. You still haven't answered my question," I said.

"I need to go buy some supplies for my research," Zexion answered. "Are you going to tag alone or not?"

"Why not? I don't have anything better to do. I never even knew that the Organization understood the concept of a vacation," I replied sarcastically.

"How amusing. Your wit knows absolutely no bounds," Zexion shot back.

"Likewise," I said calmly.

He rolled his eyes at me, walking slowly from the second level to the first level.

"Just shut up and walk," he snapped.

I followed him to the enclosed room, stepping into the portal that he had created. Oh boy. A day shopping with Zexion. Just me and him. Hold on, did this count as a date?

* * *

I stepped out of the portal to find myself standing on a higher section of land overlooking the city. Zexion and I slowly walked downwards, making our way towards the central marketplace.

"Remind me why we aren't dressed for this?" I asked.

"It's not a mission, we're just exchanging goods," Zexion answered.

"Exchanging goods? Couldn't you have just said shopping?" I demanded.

"Couldn't you have just complied?" Zexion asked.

I hate rhetorical questions, especially when I can't read his mind and he can read mine.

"Hey, doesn't he look familiar?" I asked, pointing at a boy at the center of the city.

Brown-haired boy. Duck in a magician's suit. Some dog in a knight's costume. A giant Heartless came to mind.

Zexion took a quick glance and immediately froze in place.

"Of all the..." he said, cursing under his breath.

He shoved me aside.

"Don't look at him," he instructed coldly.

"What? I've been meaning to ask. I just forgot. Why does he look like Roxas so much?" I demanded, grabbing his arm.

"That's none of your concern," Zexion snapped, inexpicably colder than usual.

"I want to thank him," I said, tossing his arm aside, "for saving me that day."

Zexion gave up trying to refuse, watching me intently as I made my way down to the bottom of the staircase and into the marketplace. He groaned hopelessly.

"Hi," I said, tapping the boy's shoulder on the back. "Sora, right?"

"Huh? Oh, hi...how do you know my name?" he asked.

"Er..." I started. "We've met before. At Port Royal. You saved me from that giant Heartless, remember?"

"That giant Heartless!" Donald recalled.

"Gawrsh that was a big one...but I don't remember anyone being nearby when we defeated that giant thing," Goofy said, thinking hard.

"Yeah, we were all alone, just the three of us," Sora confirmed.

I resisted the urge to shoot an angry glare back at my tour guide, so I did. Instead, I ranted on in my head and complained, hoping he would hear.

"Well, I was there," I said. "Anyways, I just wanted to say, thanks for saving me."

"You're welcome?" the boy asked.

"Never mind," I said, shaking my head. "Do you know anyone named Roxas by any chance?"

"Roxas? Roxas..." Sora thought. "Nope, never heard of him, but he does sound a bit familiar. Do you know him by any chance, Donald?"

"Hm...I don't think so," Donald said.

"Roxas. Nope," Goofy confirmed.

"Ah, that's too bad," I said.

Awkward silence.

"Well, thanks anyways, bye!" I yelled, running away in the other direction.

"Hold on!" Sora yelled.

I halted and turned around.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"It's um...Ino," I answered.

"Alright, see you around," he said.

I made the thoughts as clear in my mind as I could. Going exploring. Be back in a while. I don't want to attract too much attention to your position, so I'm going the other way. I need some time alone anyways.

A piece of paper flew right above my head with the words: "don't take all day and don't wander too far," scribbled on the page. Well, it was a nice piece of confirmation that he'd gotten the message.

With the conversation on my mind, I hurried across Hollow Bastion to find a nice spot where I could carefully think things through. What was his connection to Roxas? How come Zexion wouldn't tell me anymore? Why does the kid also have the Keyblade that Roxas does? Why did Zexion swear when he saw him?

More importantly, how did this all connect?

I shook my head and washed all the thoughts out. My brain hurt just from thinking about these questions. Relax. I need to find a place to relax.

As I kept walking and walking, I stumbled upon a strange crystal formation that was stunningly beautiful. I glanced carefully around the crystal fissure, completely absorbed in the beauty of the scene that I completely forgot what I was doing there for a second. It was a great place to be and all, but I'd be distracted too easily for it to be a "thinking spot."

I continued through the crystal path, eventually coming to a plateau. I spun around, examining the area carefully. It wasn't particularly attractive, but the cool breeze that came from the east was very soothing to me. I walked up to the edge of the plateau, sat down and watched as my hair danced in the wind.

Don't ask me why, because I have absolutely no idea why...I started to sing. It was a gentle song, and I'm pretty sure that I involuntarily used Demyx because it sounded beautiful. Something about it just washed away all my worries...

A jet of water leapt out from nowhere and carried me off of the edge of the plateau, into mid-air. The water hovered there steadily with me on the very top. To be honest, I was so caught up in the moment that I hadn't even noticed.

I closed my eyes, my heart dancing to the tune of the song with content.

Suddenly, a sharp thorn-like feeling completely destroyed the serenity of the moment. My eyes shot open, and the stream of water below me immediately turned into ice. (I'm kind of surprised that I did all this without phasing...a wonderful achievement on my part.)

"That's quite a scary aura you've got there," I called out.

Someone behind me laughed.

"Being able to notice my presence. You're no average pushover," the man responded. "Shouldn't you turn around and face your opponent?"

I turned around slowly, the ice beneath me breaking into a million shards as I jumped off of the structure. I landed softly and looked at him straight in the eye.

"Quite the adversary I see," I said.

"Likewise," he responded.

A long silver-haired man stood between me and the entrance where I came from. His body looked extremely well-built. A simple glance at his long sword and armor told me that he was a force to be reckoned with. He probably killed so many times that it was like eating a meal to him by now.

His most defining feature by far was the single demonic wing that he had. It seemed to respond to every one of his remarks and expressions, placing extra emphasis on his threatening words. The darkness attached around him seemed to wrap around everything within close proximity to him and consume it. Truly, a force to be reckoned with. It seems I've met my match. I needed some practice anyways.

"Unfortunately, I don't have time to play with you. I'm only here for one person," he stated clearly. "Do you happen to know Cloud?"

"A cloud?" I asked teasingly. "I can make you one with water vapour if you want."

"Not it. Him," he enunciated clearly.

Oops. Idiocy on my part.

"No, never heard of him," I said. "Why?"

"I have a score to settle with him. Never mind. He'll come looking for me in a while," he started, hand on his weapon. "Now then, better clean this up..."

He drew his weapon and slashed so quickly that I didn't even see it. I was incredibly lucky that I had the sense to phase about two seconds before the sword pierced through my body, otherwise it would have been extraordinarily bloody. Luckily, Nobodies don't have blood. It still hurt though. A lot.

"Ouch," I said, wincing at the pain.

I grabbed the sword pulling it out of me as I moved my other hand over the massive wound, using Saix to heal it.

"Oh?" Sephiroth said, raising his eyebrows.

It took a fair bit of my energy to fix the wound instantaneously, but oh well. Better that than end up as mince meat. That would suck even more.

After I was done, I grinned, bursting into flower petals and disappearing, which caused Sephiroth's eyes to open widely at the spot where I was. I teleported from the ground to the air, sprouting a single wing in the process. I couldn't fly very well with one, but it was more of a symbolic message to my opponent than anything else.

He finally looked up to identify the source of the falling petals.

"Ha, interesting," he admitted. "Let's play, shall we?"

He leapt up at me from the ground and I immediately flew back, shooting crystallized petals at him in the process. He knocked all of the shards to the ground with his sword and leapt after me.

"Ah, crud," I said, swearing.

I quickly shifted to Xaldin and created a large, compressed ball of wind between us, sending both him and me flying backwards. He was sent towards the wall of rock, while I was sent to the cliff. Lucky him.

Sephiroth jumped off of the face of the rock and came back flying towards me; however, the rock face was rugged, so his current trajectory was probably completely different than the route he had planned. If he continued, he probably would've ended up passing just above me and unable to harm me.

I thought I would take this chance to give him a taste of an air cannon. I materialized four lances and held them with my hands and feet, forming a square which channeled wind energy. (I'll give the credit to Zexion for figuring that one out.) Anyways, I gathered up some energy and fired a massive beam, straight at him.

He eyed the mechanism curiously as he brought his sword in front of him and slashed right through the attack. Strangely enough, I actually set him back of his original course. He used the discrepancies in the air and adjusted his position accordingly for him to fly straight at me again. He did all this of course, while he slashed through my attack.

I felt hurt, and tired from releasing all that energy. But mostly hurt that my well-developed attack was so easily fended off. Unfortunately, I had more pressing concerns to attend to.

Sephiroth flew at me at full speed, causing me to break the formation of my lances to defend myself. I re-organized the four lances in a drill shape, hoping to use it to connect my next attack. It didn't make the best defense for his sword, but it'd make the best offensive counter.

I did not foresee that he would break through it. Oops. The force of impact was far greater than I expected and one of the lances slipped out of place and the sword came down upon me, almost slashing me in half. It was pretty ugly.

Crap. Crap. Crap. I'd never gotten so badly hurt on a mission before, and this wasn't even a mission.

The lances disappeared, and I quickly changed to Saix to heal the wound before I hit the ground. In fact, it would've sucked if I hit the ground. A fifty foot fall over a cliff? Not very appealing to me.

Anyways, apparently I had enough strength to fix my wound, and I teleported from mid-air back onto the plateau.

"Oh, back for more?" he asked.

"Shut up," I said, incredibly angry now.

Even though I was a bit exhausted, I kept going. This guy was seriously asking for something. I'd gladly give it to him.

I through myself at him, shifting into Roxas and pulling out my Keyblade. I went in close, knocked his sword aside when he tried to attack and slashed at him. He jumped backwards just in time and spun his sword around to get me from the other side. I jumped back quickly, the sword barely missing me. I leapt in for him again, and this time, I knocked him off balance when blocking his sword. I went in and got him with the Keyblade across his chest about twice before he angrily threw his sword at me in retailiation. I jumped back too slowly and ended up with a large, horizontal scar across my face. He didn't look very damaged at all, but at least I landed a hit.

"Ouch," I said sarcastically, moving my hand up to heal the scar.

As I was doing so, he made a sudden move to lunge for me and I quickly pulled up my Keyblade in defense.

"Stop!" a voice called from the distance.

We both looked instinctively towards the sound.

"Ah, Cloud," Sephiroth said.

"Sephiroth," Cloud greeted, turning to me. "This is my fight, you stay out of it."

As much as I would've liked to clobber the guy, I was a bit too weak to argue with him, so I nodded and let him take over for me. I wandered over to a corner and sat there, watching the sparks fly between these two men.

Without another word, Cloud pulled out his blade and leapt up at Sephiroth, who also raised his sword in response.

"Cloud, why do you continue to resist the darkness?" Sephiroth asked.

"That's none of your business," Cloud responded.

Swords clashed.

"Face it Cloud, you know that you'll never be anything more without me," Sephiroth said.

"Even so, I want to make my own path. Getaway from me, you filth," Cloud yelled.

Thoughts interweaved.

"Resistance is futile, Cloud. You can't depend on anyone for help," Sephiroth said.

There was a short pause, as they both landed on the ground.

"You don't get it Sephiroth. You just don't get it. All the people that support me, all my friends, they give me my power!" Cloud declared.

"How naïve of you," Sephiroth said.

"It's true, you just can't see the truth in front of you because you choose to surround yourself in a ridiculous fantasy," Cloud said. "I win."

And with that, his blade split into six different swords. He leapt gracefully from one sword to another and soar through Sephiroth with each of them. I stared at his speed in awe.

Sephiroth crumbled to the ground and started fading into darkness.

"Cloud..." he called.

"Get lost, forever," Cloud responded coldly, as he landed on the ground.

The six swords landed right around him in a circular formation as Sephiroth faded out of existence.

I sat there, watching the scene completely awestruck. Just one look at him told me that he probably had a very epic history behind him. An epic romance, and likely, a tragic death. Poor guy.

"Thank you," he said, "for keeping his busy until I got here."

"Huh?" I asked. "You're welcome, I guess?"

He let out a faint chuckle, slowly walking towards the Great Maw with the reformed gigantic sword of his by his side. He stopped halfway and started to speak again.

"You have someone you want to protect, don't you?" he asked without looking back.

"What?" I asked, suddenly taken by surprise.

"I can tell by the way you fight. You have someone who is very dear to you, someone you want to protect at all costs," Cloud repeated.

Well...it was kind of true. Cloud chuckled again.

"Here," he said, sticking his sword into the ground where he stood. "A gift for you."

"Don't you need it?" I asked.

"My battle's already over," he said. "I have no more use for a weapon such as this."

I remained silent and let him continue speaking.

"Take it," he said. "I'm sure your battle's just begun."

There was a short silence as I thought about how to react. By the time, I'd made a decision, he was nearly out of sight.

"Thank you, Cloud," I yelled.

Not realizing that I could still hear, he paused again and spoke to himself.

"She's just like her," he whispered, shaking his head. "Hmph, how ironic."

And then, he was gone.

To be honest, if I hadn't met Zexion first, I definetly would've fallen for him. Cloud, eh? Nice to meet you.

* * *

It took a while for me to realize that I shouldn't have accepted his gift. I stood there, staring at the blade in the ground for about a minute or so. I hadn't even thought about how I was going to use it. I didn't have a need for a weapon, nor would I find it convenient to carry one. Darn shame. Well, in any case, I'd just carry it back for now. Hopefully, Zexion could find some way to compress it or something.

I laid one hand on the weapon, which immediately started to glow brightly. I collapsed on the ground of a heart ache, my hand still on the sword. My other hand was clutching the necklace, because as it turns out, it wasn't actually my heart that was in pain, it was the necklace...somehow I felt it too. That's strange, I'd have to ask Zexion again later. I picked the necklace up as I watched the symbols flash across the necklace's node, finally stabilizing over a double Keyblade. The sword I held in my right hand immediately turned into the Keyblade and the pain receded.

I stood there, completely oblivious at whatever just happened. Unless...

I grabbed the Keyblade with both hands and tried to pull it apart. Sure enough, I found myself standing with a Keyblade in either hand. Very scary and interesting at the same time. Oh well, at least I'd solved my problem.

I willed the Keyblade to disappear and phased back into a human, stumbling in the process due to my low energy levels. I gasped at the scratches and holes that were in my clothes. I tried to reform them using Saix, but I was a bit tired to fix some of the big ones and I probably missed some. Too bad.

I walked towards the exit of the place, staring back at the dent that the sword had left in the center of the plateau. What an interesting day.

* * *

The sound of footsteps came from behind him.

"You sure took a while..." Zexion started, staring at my condition. "Hey! Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just a little scratch that's all," I responded, hugging the railing of the staircase for support.

"Don't lie, I've already extracted the rundown of events from your head," he said.

I groaned. Typical mindreader. He ran over to me to support me and walk me into his portal.

"We're going home," he declared. "Sheesh...and it's supposed to be a vacation too."

I chuckled.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

Too lazy to say the words, I thought them aloud.

_**You've changed a lot, you know...since I first met you.**_

He pretended to ignore me and supported me into the portal, but I know he heard. That's all I ever needed.


	19. Elections

Chapter 19 ~ Elections

Well, we'd finally arrived at the time.

"Student council elections," Zexion said, reading my mind.

_**Shut up. It's really annoying that this mind-reading thing doesn't go both ways.**_

He chuckled.

"It's not my fault you exhausted yourself fighting over water vapour," he said.

Of course, any bystander would just think we were screwed up idiots, but I understood what he said well enough.

I stared over at him warningly.

_**What part of "shut up" don't you understand, sheesh?**_

He remained silent, shifting his gaze to the front of the class as the lesson started.

The rest of the day went on relatively smoothly. There wasn't much pressure on my academic record now that I had the necklace. I didn't even need to pay attention anymore; I could either read it out of Zexion's mind or just borrow his brains with the necklace.

The P.A. came on halfway through the day.

"Attention all students," the voice said. "Ballots are now being delivered to every classroom for the student council elections. Teachers, please make sure every one of the students vote. It's mandatory for our school."

"Here we are," Zexion said.

"Joy, joy," I replied. "You know that people generally just vote for the person with the cooler name if they don't know them, right?"

"Of course," Zexion said, "but I'd say that Rion Schneider fits that category. Besides, they do know me."

"Well, in my case, that might be a bit troublesome. Ino's such a boring name, and no one knows me," I explained.

"Don't worry," he said. "Ino's not that bad of a name."

"I haven't heard worse," I groaned.

"Really now," Zexion replied, interested in the conversation all of a sudden. "What would you name yourself if you were given the choice?"

"Hm...well, it's kind of weird, but I've always liked the name Aeyra," I said, cheeks glowing red.

"Aeyra? How strange. Where'd you get that out of?" Zexion asked.

"I don't know," I replied.

"Well, in any case, Ino's way better compared to your stupid name," Zexion said.

"Hey! In that case, don't ask me to tell you," I said, crossing my arms.

He chuckled once more.

"Just make sure to vote for yourself at least, I don't want to have to rig the votes in your favor," he said.

I scoffed at him.

The teacher handed out the ballots to everyone. I took a good look at them, laughing when I read the president's line.

"The other guy's name is crossed out," I said. "Must of chickened out last minute. Smart guy. It would've been just idiotic if he tried to run against you. You would've pulverized him. Though, it must have sucked for whoever had to manually cross these out."

"Well, the school is poor," Zexion said. "Well, that just makes my life easier. One less check mark to write."

He went down the list, carefully examining individual names and checking boxes until he arrived at the vice president's line.

"Ino Koubuki," Zexion said, checking my name.

"Shut up," I shot back.

I ran down the list, reading through all the names.

"Any in particular that you want me to check?" I asked.

"Yeah, actually. Higuchi under Literary Representative. Interesting kid," Zexion said.

My eyes scrolled over and my hand moved by itself, deliberately checking the other name. Almost instantaneously, the pen mark had transferred itself from the other person's box to Higuchi's box.

I stared over at Zexion again.

"Oops, I must've slipped," Zexion said.

"You're so annoying," I said.

I gave up trying to resist. I didn't really care anyways. He'd probably already rigged the whole election to run exactly the way he wanted it to.

_**I'm guessing you already pulled lots of strings beforehand.**_

He smiled at him.

"Of course," he said.

The teacher called for all the ballots.

"All right," he said. "That's all the time you'd need. Hand the ballots in already."

Everyone lined up at the teacher's desk, chucking the pieces of paper at him. Poor teacher.

Zexion swiped mine from my desk and walked up to the teacher's desk. The classmates made way for him as we calmly dropped the ballots into the basket and walked back to me.

"Gee, being nice for once?" I said sarcastically.

"Not really, I just don't want you to get used to these inefficient systems," Zexion said. "Amateurs. There were 7000+ ways to better organize this thing. It's like they're deliberately trying to give you room for rigging the votes."

"Well not everyone's a genius like you," I complained.

"That's understandable," he said, which ticked me off even more.

* * *

"RION!" some girls called after school. "We voted for you."

"Gee, go tell that to the rest of the 1000 or so people in the school," Zexion said.

"He was the only one you could've voted for anyways, the other guy dropped out," I replied.

"No he didn't," the girls said.

"Yes he did," I argued.

Hold on...

I shot an angry glare at Zexion, who shrugged and whistled.

_**You didn't purposely cross out the guy's name on my ballot, did you?**_

"Guilty," he said, smiling.

"Urgh!" I grunted, storming out the door.

The girls looked after me, waving.

"We voted for you too, Ino!" they yelled in unison.

"Oh joy, let me find a place within myself to actually care," I responded quietly.

Zexion stalked after me, keeping just out of my sight.

I stopped at the usual spot, turning around.

"Do you have any idea how annoying you are?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"I try," was his simple response.

I sighed. Annoying yet charming. How did I possibly fall for a guy like him?

"Thinking too loudly," he said uncomfortably.

I groaned.

"Well anyways, I've got some good news for you. Just from poking around, I can guarantee you that you've already won," Zexion said. "Congratulations, Ino."

"Well, just from you being you, I can guarantee YOU that you've already won," I replied sarcastically. "Congratulations, RION."

He rolled his eyes at me.

"You should be disqualified for using a fake name, you'd so deserve it," I said.

"Well, either way I'd win," he said. "I would've had to do more memory altering the other way. Too much work."

I laughed.

"Let's just get home, I'm way too tired," I said.

"Why don't you just go and rest for the day?" he said. "I'll cover double duty for you tonight. Saix won't be happy, but oh well. I'll talk him around it."

"My, my...what a surprise," I said. "Someone's being surprisingly nice around me recently."

He looked away in response to my comment. I raised my eyebrows curiously.

"Just get out of here before I change my mind, I'll cover for you," Zexion said, creating a portal.

"Hmph, suit yourself," I responded, walking into it.

* * *

"Where's Xion?" Saix demanded.

"Sleeping," Zexion responded instinctively.

"Why didn't you tell her to report to work?" Saix asked.

"She's SLEEPING," Zexion repeated. "Is there a problem if I do double duty tonight?"

There was a short silence.

"You're letting yourself get too attached to her," Saix said.

"Hardly," Zexion responded. "She's the most annoying brat I've ever had to mentor."

"The one and only," Saix corrected.

"Same difference," Zexion said.

Saix stopped and thought about it for a moment.

"Hmph, suit yourself. You're going to do recon in Hollow Bastion and Agrabah today." Saix said.

"My pleasure," Zexion responded sarcastically.

He waved his hand, opening a portal.

"Don't forget what's truly important, Ienzo," Saix said coldly.

Zexion flinched a bit upon hearing his old name. How nostalgic.

* * *

"You owe me big time," Zexion said, slapping me awake.

"Get away from me, sheesh," I yelled, rolling over to my side. "You're the one who told me to sleep."

No further argument.

"In any case," Zexion said, "get up or you're going to miss the announcement of the results."

I groaned.

"I don't care," I said.

Zexion cursed and flipped open the covers.

Okay, this has got to be one of the most awkward scenes in history. Luckily, I was fully clothed, so it wasn't that awkward, but the gown I was wearing happened to flip upwards as he lifted the covers, so he probably saw more than he bargained for.

I gasped, screaming.

"You pervert!" I yelled, immediately throwing him against the wall with a massive amount of wind.

I didn't have any time to prepare or hold back, so I probably put more force into that than I would've liked. It seemed that he didn't have any time to defend either.

His body left a pretty ugly dent in the wall.

"Sorry," I whispered, as I heard his groans. "But I'll have to admit, I was surprised that you didn't react violently."

I walked over to him, gently supporting him and curing him of any wounds I might have inflicted upon him.

It was a strange sensation, because I'd never actually touched him in such a way before. Most of the time, I was either trying to hit him or being supported my him.

His body was pretty light, and his skin felt as soft as a baby's. His flowing hair seemed to beckon me to touch it.

"Nobody, remember?" he said gently. "Don't have feelings. I couldn't care less."

I smiled.

"Sorry about that," I said.

He raised his finger and caressed my face, causing me to shrink back in surprise.

"It's alright," he said, smiling for the first time in a while. "My bad."

* * *

The P.A. system didn't seem to want to shut up today.

"President. Rion Schneider. Vice-president. Ino Koubuki. Literary Rep. Higuchi Kyosuke. Athletic Rep..." the voice rambled on.

"Ino! Rion!" a familiar voice yelled. "Congratulations!"

I turned around.

"Oh hey, Nina," I greeted. "How're you doing?"

"Alright," she said. "How about you guys?"

Thoughts flickered back to the morning incident. We exchanged glances.

"All right," we both said in unison.

Nina eyed us weirdly.

"You wanted to talk to him, right?" I asked, trying to change the subject. "Usual spot. Lunch."

"Okay, 'til then," Nina said, running off to her next class.

"That incident's taboo," I said as soon as Nina had disappeared.

"Agreed," Zexion responded.

* * *

Lunch rolled around the corner really fast today. Zexion, Nina and I met at the tree as usual, and talked about strange things, as usual.

"So you haven't lost your mind yet?" Zexion asked.

"No," Nina responded. "Frankly, I'm not that surprised. It's kind of like when those scientists discovered..."

"Anyways," I said, cutting her off from her rant, "she says she wants to apologize. I don't see a point, but she wanted to anways."

Nina nodded.

"About what?" Zexion asked, uninterested.

"Well I kind of blamed you for something, and I felt bad about it, so I want to apologize," Nina said.

There was another long silence. The wind gently blew the leaves to the ground.

"Well, I probably shouldn't blame you for wanting to apologize to me, but I'm going to anwyays," Zexion said. "So there, we're even."

He leapt off the branch gracefully and onto the ground.

"I have to address the school with a speech," he said, "so I'll be going now. Have fun, you two."

Nina sat there, still frozen in thought about what Zexion had just said.

"He's a pretty interesting guy, isn't he?" Nina said. "Cold, but kind-hearted."

"The one and only," I repeated.


	20. Confession

Chapter 20 ~ Confession

"You haven't told him yet, have you?" Nina asked.

In the distance, Zexion's walk slowed.

"Stop thinking!" I yelled.

"What?" she asked shyly.

"Stop thinking!" I repeated. "He's eavesdropping."

"How do I...?" Nina asked, as I moved my hand over her and putting her in a forced sleep.

When Zexion finally disappeared into the school, I woke her up again.

"How inconsiderate can you be?" Nina asked drowsily.

"Sorry, it's too embarrassing though," I said.

She put her hand on my back.

"It's alright," she said, apologizing.

"Don't apologize for me," I said in response.

I stared into the sky and watched the clouds as they drifted across the sky. Nina put her hand on mine, causing me to look at her.

"You're going to have to tell him eventually, you know," Nina said.

"I know," I replied.

"Better sooner than later," she said.

"I know," I repeated.

"Tonight?" she asked hopefully.

"I know," I repeated.

A short pause.

"Wait, what?" I protested. "No, I didn't just say that!"

"Yes, you did," Nina insisted.

"No, I didn't," I said.

"Give it up," she said.

"No way," I said.

"Well, you're going to have to do it to save your heart," Nina said.

I didn't respond, though deep inside me, I knew that she was right.

I sighed. Good point, Nina.

"Eventually," I said. "Sometime in the future...preferably the far future..."

"Tonight," Nina argued. "We agreed."

"For a little, human girl, you can be just as annoying as Zexion you know," I said.

"Hmph. I am not annoying," she said. "You're just being childish."

I was a bit blown-off by that comment.

"Childish? I like to think of myself as somewhat well-mannered," I replied.

"Tonight," she repeated.

I stared at her.

"Fine, fine! Sheesh! Tonight it is," I said, with no intention to follow her suggestion.

"I'll ask Zexion tomorrow," she said, immediately crushing any hope I had.

"Not tonight," I argued again.

"You just agreed," Nina said.

I gave up. This conversation wouldn't get anywhere.

I jumped off the branch and onto the ground.

"Well, let me go see how he's faring," I said.

"Alright then, see you later," Nina replied.

I started to walk towards the school, doubting myself with each passing footstep.

I mean now that I thought about it, how hard could it be? I love you.

Just three words, isn't that right?

Just three words.

* * *

"How was the speech?" I asked him as we were walking home.

"Easy," he said. "I winged it. I'd say it went pretty nicely."

"Of course," I said. "I wouldn't expect anything less from you."

"And I wouldn't expect anything more," he replied.

I let that slide.

"Well in any case, congratulations," I said, ignoring his previous comment.

"For what?" he asked, suddenly interested.

"You have officially established your position as a ruthless dictator over a school of complete and utter idiots," I said sarcastically.

"Thanks, the position sounds a lot more appealing now," he replied with the same tone. "It's only for my research any..."

We both paused and spun our heads up.

I chuckled first, reaching my hand out and trying to catch one of the delicate frozen pieces of water.

"Snow," he stated.

"I can see that," I said sarcastically. "Taste one!"

"Excuse me?" he asked. "Taste water?"

"It's fun," I argued. "If you're going to live as a human being, you may as well try to act like one. Jeez! It's like you're completely empty all the time."

"Well, I am a..." he started.

"No complaints," I said, cutting him off. "Taste one."

Reluctantly, he stuck his tongue out, trying to catch one of the falling snowflakes. He looked like some kind of butterfly with a horrible sense of direction, jumping this way and that.

"You like an idiot," I said to him. "It's like you're purposely trying to avoid them. Just stand still and a snowflake will land on your tongue eventually."

"Shut up," he complained.

I swear I saw the slightest hint of red on his cheeks. He tried to deny it afterwards, but I know what I saw.

"Mind your own business," he decided.

* * *

"Why are you so obsessed with snow anyways?" he asked as he opened the door to the mansion.

I sighed. What a long story.

"Well, my family was always really annoying, as you already know, but during winter, most of that tension in out family always seemed to dissipate. I don't really know why, but the snow seemed to melt away all our worries and differences, so I always look forward to winter. Always," I said.

"Intersesting," he said, thinking.

The two of us, stood in the doorway without moving. He was off in one of his thinking sessions and I was busy reminiscing about old times.

I thought about telling him now, but the timing just didn't seem right. Besides, he would've hurt me if I interrupted his thought session, so I'd wait. Maybe tomorrow, I thought happily.

But that perfect moment came a lot sooner than I'd originally expected.

* * *

"I already got the orders from Saix, so we don't have to stop at the castle today," Zexion said.

"Oh really?" I asked. "Where are we going?"

"Beast's Castle," he said. "Some Heartless problem, and a side mission."

"That's interesting, what side mission?" I asked, consumed by curiosity.

"You're on the Heartless problem," he replied bluntly. "I'm on the side mission."

Oh joy. So the contents of some secret mission were to be kept away from me, again.

"Fine," I said, giving in. "Hurry up and create a portal."

He waved his arm gently, a black darkness taking form in front of him.

"After you," he said.

I enjoyed the split second of surprise on his face when I shoved him in first.

* * *

"Heartless, heartless, where is said Heartless?" I asked myself.

I'd been searching hours now, but to no avail. I'd looked through the east wing, and the west wing for that matter. I'd even thoroughly sweeped the ballroom.

Hm... Maybe it's outside.

I threw the door open, walking outside casually.

I scanned the courtyard, dispatching a few shadows, but there didn't seem to be much of a big problem with Heartless. I paused, maybe they messed up or something.

A scream erupted from the other side of the gate.

"The bridge?" I gasped.

I teleported to the other side of the gigantic door in my way, and watched as a giant Shadow Stalker slowly advanced towards a young lady.

She screamed, crouching in terror as the Heartless clawed at her.

I threw her backwards with a gust of wind and leapt in between the two, forcing the Heartless back.

"Who are..." she began.

I didn't have time to reply though. The Heartless was lightning fast, jumping wildly.

I leapt back to gain some distance and tried to freeze the ground around me. The ice creeped towards the Heartless like a menacing predator, stalking its prey. The Shadow Stalker jumped up into the air to avoid being frozen on the spot, sliding a bit when it landed.

Too late. As long as the ground was frozen, I could freeze the creature within an instant as long as he touched the ice.

The Heartless struggled relentlessly, trying to break free of the ice that was slowly covering his body.

"It's been nice knowing you," I whispered quietly, shattering all the ice on the bridge.

The Heartless broke into a million pieces, and I watched as the heart drifted into the air and out of sight.

The young lady who I saved from the monster seemed to be watching too.

"Thank you very..." she started.

But I was already gone. Mission accomplished.

* * *

"Who are you?" the Beast roared.

"Someone from the dark," the man replied.

"What are you doing here? What do you want with me? Are you the source of all the Heartless in my castle?" the Beast interrogated.

"My, my, so many questions. The answers are all up to you though," the man said.

"Stop screwing around," the Beast yelled, slashing at the man.

His claws merely slashed through air as the figure disappeared from his position.

"Aren't we the hasty one?" the voice taunted.

The Beast spun around, lunging for the man, only to hit air again.

"What's so important to you here? Why are you so keen on destroying me?" the man asked.

"I need to protect her," the Beast yelled, "from all you monsters."

"Is that so?" the man asked, hand on the rose. "Are you sure you're not forgetting what's truly important?"

"No! The rose!" the Beast yelled, throwing himself at the mysterious cloaked figure.

However, this time, he was gone for good. The man watched the scene silently from outside the window.

"I only need to tip him off," he said. "That should suffice."

And then he disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

"Where is he?" I asked. "He said one hour in the ballroom!"

"Sorry," the voice came as a figure materialized from the shadows.

"Like heck you are," I complained. "Are you done though?"

"Yeah, it was a bit of a pain, but yeah," Zexion said.

"About time," I responded.

"Let's go home for tonight," Zexion said. "Star-gazing, shall we?"

I nodded. He owed me big time for waiting this long.

* * *

"Isn't the scenery just wonderful tonight?" Zexion asked as we both sat on the ledge of my window.

He pointed towards the giant collection of hearts in the sky.

"That there, Kingdom Hearts...how beautiful," he said.

Yep, definetly beautiful.

Honestly, I could've just sat there with him until time's end and not complain about it. It was just such a perfect moment that there was no way to deny it. We sat there, hand-in-hand, staring into each other's eyes...

_**Just three words.**_

"Excuse me?" Zexion asked.

I took a deep breath and said it. I finally said it.

"I love you," I said.

But the words didn't fully come out right. The bubble that was surrounding our perfect moment popped and I broke out of the trance.

"I mean...I mean..." I stammered.

Time stopped. He stared at me like a statue, frozen in stone for about a minute or so. Then, he gently leapt off the ledge. I turned around, carefully eyeing him as he moved.

He walked over to me and...

Smack.

I looked up in disbelief.

"Don't be an idiot!" he yelled, voice considerably louder than before. "You know what I can't feel anything! It could never happen!"

He stared at me, unblinking, yet his violet eyes showed some signs of regret.

"Then...t-tell me!" I stuttered on the words. "What am I to you?"

He pondered for a while.

"A close colleague," he finally said, voice unwavering. "That's all."

Absolute silence.

"Sorry," he added on, closing his eyes.

Without another word, he turned his back and strided out the door, slamming it behind him.

My heart throbbed uncontrollably as I fully took in what he just said. I felt so very lonely; I couldn't help it anymore. A split second later, I burst out crying.


	21. Without You

Chapter 21 ~ Without You

Nothing seemed real anymore. The room, the window, the slap on my cheek, these feelings...nothing seemed to make any sense.

Yet, the truth always caught up to me, no matter how much I tried to run away from my conscience. It did happen.

I tried to imagine a world without him. What a small world it was indeed.

I accidentally rolled off the windowsill, collapsing on the floor in an awkward position. I made no effort to get up, there just wasn't any point. I'd let my emotions get the better of me, and now, I'd probably never have the face to see him again.

I sighed, tears rolling down my cheek. I'm such an idiot. It's alright, I tried to tell myself.

But it simply wasn't.

* * *

I couldn't stay here forever. Sooner or later, this room would fill up with so much of my insanity that I'd probably crack. I couldn't leave this world without Ze...him...anyways, because I couldn't create a portal by myself, nor did I develop my teleportation technique to be able to transport myself in between worlds. In short, no matter what, I was stuck here, for who knows how long.

I had a sudden inclination to take a walk. If he had the slightest bit of dignity, he wouldn't be wandering around outside, so I wouldn't see him, hopefully.

I grasped the doorknob gently and watched as the door creaked open.

No one was there. The hall was absolutely silent.

Satisfied, I stepped out of the doorframe and closed it behind me. Maybe I could catch one of the other members, and ask them to make a portal for me. We'll see. But then again, I didn't know anyone that well besides...him.

I walked slowly towards the elevator, and stood silently as the giant mechanism started to move downwards. To be honest, I didn't know why I was going this way...I guess I just felt like it. It was like, all of a sudden, I was absorbed in this strange curiosity to explore the rest of the castle. So I did.

The elevator stopped abruptly, and I walked towards the only exit available on this floor. As I passed through the entryway, I came to a short, suspended staircase in a large, circular room.

I climbed the stairway and entered this strangely-coloured room. Well, it was perfectly normal for a room to be dark blue of course, but considering the rest of the castle is some shade of grey, this was a pretty strange sight to behold.

"Like what you see?" a voice asked.

Whoa..whoa..whoa... My head cocked upwards at the sound.

"This is my training area," Xigbar said.

"Your...training area?" I asked.

"Yep, this is where I go between missions and downtime," he said.

"Okay, so what, are you training now?" I asked.

"As if! I'm just kicking back. I'm bored," he answered. "What about you? Aren't you supposed to be playing your little game of school? Why are you here?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Because I'm bored," I said, suddenly feeling much better.

"Pfft." Xigbar sneered. "You're just like that one. Impossible to start a decent conversation with. He likes to contradict others every 2 seconds. Sheesh. What's your problem?"

Just bringing him into the conversation made me feel really uncomfortable.

"Uh...I have to go now," I said. "Enjoy your break time."

Xigbar eyed me cautiously as I stepped right past him and into the next room.

"Suit yourself," he finally said.

I didn't want to ask Xigbar for help. Well, normally, he'd probably just wave his hand and say "whatever," but he's also that kind of annoying person that'll pester you to tell him all the details before he agrees to help you. Since I started the conversation and ended it in an awkward way, he'd definitely want to find out what was up, and no way was I going to tell him.

Although, it's sad that you can't even mention his name around me anymore. I just can't take it.

I continued through the door. To be honest, I wasn't the slightest bit interested in the scenery around here. I didn't even know why I kept walking this way. There was some kind of a chain that was tugging at my conscience (and at my body in turn) that was dragging me upwards.

I passed through what seemed to be a graveyard for all the members of the Organization, passed through this hallway with invisible steps and entered the doorway to the Altar of Naught.

And this is where the strange feeling stopped.

I took a couple of steps up the stairs, feeling a bit weird since the discomfort was now gone.

I had my first glance of Kingdom Hearts there.

I was suddenly compelled to just take a few steps closer, to get a clearer view, until I found myself hanging over the edge of the altar.

"Isn't it beautiful?" a deep voice came from behind.

I turned around.

"Oh! Um..." I started.

I didn't know how to address him really, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Xemnas asked again.

I didn't think anything could look nice to me anymore, but quite frankly, there was just no way to doubt the beauty that was suspended directly in front of my eyes. Kingdom Hearts. A collection of all the gathered hearts that Roxas and I collect.

"Yes, yes it is," I replied.

Xemnas turned on me.

"Is there a problem?" he asked, lips curled with interest.

"Uh...no," I quickly stammered, snapping out of it, "sir."

"So I see..." he said.

There was a long period of silence while we both stared at the massive gathering of hearts.

"Um...sir," I added.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Could you create a portal for me, back to Earth?" I asked tentatively. "He's not around and I need to get back as soon as possible."

"A portal," he said, waving his hand.

A circular, black gathering of darkness appeared from the middle of nowhere. Well that was easy.

"Thank you," I said.

"Take care of yourself, Xion," Xemnas replied with a mischievous expression on his face.

Right... I sincerely hoped this wasn't some screwed up trick to dump me in Wonderland. Did I mention I hate that messed up world?

* * *

"My liege," Saix started, "surely, you've heard the news by now?"

Xemnas merely stared at him with a blank expression on his face.

"Xion has been missing in action for the past week or so," Saix began. "Xigbar was the last one who heard from her. Apparently, she seemed troubled by something."

Saix sighed with fatigue.

"In addition, No. VI has isolated himself in his room and put up a massive array of barriers and enchantments to prevent anyone from disturbing him or entering the room," Saix said. "I regret to inform you that I'm at a loss as to what to do with Zexion. As for Xion, I propose that we send out a search par..."

It was then that Xemnas began to laugh. It began with a chuckle, which slowly transformed to one that echoed mockingly in Saix' ears.

"Excuse me?" Saix asked.

Xemnas ceased his laughter, turning to talk to Saix, face to face.

"Do you not see it?" Xemnas asked, shaking his head. "Then you truly are blind."

He chuckled once more.

"I applaud you, for playing your role as a Nobody brilliantly; however, you have forgotten that which is truly important to remember," Xemnas said.

"And that is...?" Saix asked, walking up to his master.

"The power of the human heart," Xemnas explained. "In order words, love."

Saix' eyes opened wide at his master's open declaration. Clearly intrigued by the thought, he nodded with increasing curiosity. Soon enough, he began chuckling too.

"Is this what you had intended from the start?" Saix asked.

"Plans have gone slightly awry, but more or less along the lines of what I had thought," Xemnas answered.

Saix nodded.

"I never expected Zexion to..." Xemnas started. "Never mind."

Saix stared at his master questioningly.

"So what shall we do now?" Saix asked. "Shall I..?"

"Nothing," was Xemnas' simple response. "We shall do absolutely nothing."

* * *

It's been a week, at least. I haven't even gone back to the mansion; I don't even want to leave the slightest clues that he can trace. Instead, I've been sleeping in trees for the most part. It's hard to get much sleep in a tree, so I'm now twice as tired as normal humans should be.

Nothing much has changed. I haven't even gone back to school yet. I don't really want to face Nina after what happened. It'd only make her feel worse for suggesting it in the first place.

I wanted to erase this part of my life and just pretend it never happened. I even tried to destroy the necklace, but every time I tried, it was like there was this strange unseen force that held it together. I threw it out, but it would always find its way back to me again somehow. It reached a point where everytime I tried to lift it away from my body, I felt excruciating pain around my heart. So, in short, I was screwed. Stuck with it.

I even considered suicide for the first time in my life. Emphasis on "considered." I still treasured life too much to do something like that.

No matter how hard you try, you can't change the past.

* * *

A single figure lay in the room, sprawled across his bed in the most awkward position. There was not a single thing out of place, yet the whole area just looked like a giant mess.

Zexion eyes stared into the middle of nowhere, unblinking. He tried to blow his hair up and out of his face gently, but gravity always won in the end.

"Zexion!" a voice called from outside the door. "Open up!"

The figure showed no sign of answering. He merely nudged the noise aside as if it were another distraction. The knocking finally ceased, and the presence vanished from the other side of the door.

After a while, the figure sat up slowly, stared from corner to corner and sighed with regret.

"What the heck am I doing here?" he finally said.

He waved his hand, a portal of darkness appearing on the spot, but he didn't get up. He made no move to enter the portal.

He merely sat there, deep in thought.


	22. A Pleasant Surprise

Chapter 22 ~ A Pleasant Surprise

"What's wrong?" Nina asked.

"Nothing," I said as I munched on a sandwich.

"Where's Zexion?" Nina asked.

I shook my head, attempting not to think about it.

"I don't know," I responded.

I'd tried to clear my head out before I went back to school. It clearly didn't work out very well, because Nina easily deciphered my thoughts. Maybe it was just her?

I hoped too much for my own good. Me alone in school, depressed. Rion missing. Coincidence? I think not.

"You look horrible," Nina said.

She sighed. I sighed. We all sighed.

"Well then, I suppose I can't make you ask looking like this," Nina said.

I remained silent for a couple of seconds, and then spoke up.

"I...asked already," I said slowly, poking my lunch with my fork.

I saw the shocked expression flash across her face.

"Sorry..." she immediately responded, her eyes drifting away. "I shouldn't have..."

"Nah, it's all right," I said, shutting her up. "It was bound to happen anyways. Blame my own naivete."

We passed the remaining lunch time in silence. Though I do commend her that she knew well enough to just leave me alone. I probably would've accidentally killed her if she kept pressing on.

I sighed.

But even if I try to heal these wounds in my heart, the only one who can fully erase the scars isn't here anymore. He was gone. Gone with the wind.

I shook my head. I should just accept this. The sooner I accept it, the less painful it becomes.

"Are you okay?" Nina asked again, watching my troubled expression.

I tried my best and most reassuring smile.

"Yeah. I'm fine," I responded with the happiest tone I could manage.

Absolutely fine.

But it seemed that I was trying to convince myself more than I was trying to convince her.

I sighed again.

When will the pain go away? Never apparently. At least, not anytime soon.

* * *

"Aaron," the teacher called.

"Here," a voice answered.

"Katia," the teacher called.

"Here," someone said.

"Ino," the teacher called.

I stared up for the first time since class started. Without saying anything, I raised my hand and put it back down again after the teacher nodded in acknowledgement.

"Speaking of which, where have you and Rion been for the past week or so?" the teacher asked. "He didn't show up this morning for my class either. Is something wrong?"

"No idea," I said in a low, monotone voice.

"Surely, you'd know something?" the teacher insisted.

"No idea," I repeated, spinning the pen in my hand.

"Uh...Miss..." Nina interjected.

"Don't you guys live in the same hou...?" the teacher started.

She forced me to reach the end of my patience. I slammed my hands on the desk, and stood up with surprising speed, alraming the class.

"Look, Miss Permy," I said.

"Piemy," she corrected timidly.

"Piemy," I repated, raising my voice. "Ever heard of 'no idea'? You're in English teacher, aren't you? Do you need me to teach you what 'no idea' means? Shall I go look it up in a dictionary and get the proper dictionary definition for you? Do you need me to search it up on Google? Should I...?"

"Uh...Ino..." Nina whispered.

It took me a while to zap back to reality and realize that the whole class was staring at me. I sat down quietly.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

The teacher looked a bit flustered.

"Are you okay?" the teacher asked.

"Yeah, yeah," I said. "I'm sane."

"For now," someone added.

Officially. Unofficially insane. Go blame it on my alter ego.

Gossip started to spread amongst our class, and by some idiotic joke, I managed to hear every single word that was said, making me feel even worse. I listened in with Demyx' superior hearing abilities unconsciously.

"Did you hear? She was dumped," someone whispered.

"Really, dumped?" someone else replied. "I knew she wouldn't stand a chance with someone like him."

"As if, she's such a loser after all," someone behind me whispered.

I flinched at the Xigbar reference.

"It was kind of hard to believe that they were going out in the first place," someone else said. "Well, this was bound to happen sooner or later anyways."

The teacher was really ticked off by all the talking in class.

I slammed my head on the desk just as the teacher walked up to my table. The whole class turned towards me and all the talking stopped.

Strange, why did my notes feel all wet? It just didn't make any sense. It was only then that I realized that I'd been crying. Not just for the past few minutes, but probably ever since the class started. It was as if I'd already made my own little pool in a classroom. The water felt surprisingly cold against my face. I couldn't help it but continue crying.

Thank goodness the bell rang before it got too embarassing.

I wiped my tears with my arm and got up, picking up my books.

"Ino," the teacher called, as Nina and I exchanged looks.

I motioned for her to go on ahead without me and she nodded.

The class was empty by the time I made it to the teacher's desk.

"What's wrong with you today?" she asked. "Disrupting the class, not listening in class and disobeying the teacher. I'll have to give you a detention for that. Tomorrow after school."

"Yeah, whatever," I answered, leaving the room before she could say anything else.

Besides, I had to rush from the first floor to the third floor for my next class, so I ran out the door. Stupid ethics teacher would give me another detention for being late.

While I was down the hallway, the tears started flowing down my cheek again.

_**Did you hear? She was dumped.**_

Stop it.

_**About Rion, does that mean he's free now? Ah!!! I should ask him out soon.**_

Shut up.

_**No, that's not fair. Shouldn't we feel a bit sorry for her?**_

Why am I hearing all this?

_**She went from a nobody, to a somebody, back to a nobody again within an year or so.**_

That's not true.

_**It's a bit depressing to hear that, but it's better for the rest of us.**_

Shut up.

_**What the heck is she thinking?**_

Stop questioning my sanity.

_**I think she's having withdrawal symptons from being dumped.**_

SHUT UP!

I should have realized that I'd been naive. Trying to live without him. It was only now that I understood that it was impossible. I can't go on like this anymore. Life wasn't worth living like this.

Instead, let's have some fun and orchestrate the most interesting suicide in history.

Yeah, that's what I'll do.

Tears fell from my eyes as I rounded the corner. I seriously thought that I was going completely insane for a second there. I felt like I had such a heavy burden that I was going to crack any second now.

My eyes were closed to hide my tears, so I wasn't paying attention to where I was going.

I crashed into someone, hard. One by one, my books fell to the floor, each creating loud, resonating sounds.

"I'm sor..." I said.

But I didn't manage to finish my sentence.

My eyes opened wide with surprise as I felt lips pressed fiercely against mine. I looked up to see a familiar face that I sincerely missed. No way. It couldn't be. Am I dreaming?

_**Zexion...**_

I smiled, tears streaming down my cheek.

"Ino..." Zexion said.

How I missed his voice. It came out a bit raspy and fragmented at first, but that didn't take away from the nostalgia at all.

I couldn't keep it in anymore. All the despair within me leaked out as I clutched his shirt desperately.

"It's okay. Don't hold back," he said. "Let me shoulder your pain and despair."

_Let me share your burden with you._

He held me closer, pressing my body against his, letting his shirt absorb my tears. My hair became extremely messy from being rubbed against his shirt, but I couldn't care less. There have been less important things. In response, I hugged him tightly with the intent of never letting go again.

_**Zexion...why did you come back?**_

"I know I don't..." he started.

_...have a heart..._

"...but I'll try," he said.

He smiled.

It took a while for me to fully take in what he just said. I didn't really understand what would bring him to make such a decision, but I was glad regardless.

I pulled away from him, wiping my tears. I grabbed his hand with mine. All of a sudden, it felt like he'd never left in the first place. The warm face. The sweet voice. The angelic movement. Nothing had changed.

_**Please, **_I begged,**_ never let go of this hand again._**

_I won't. I promise._

There was a pause.

_Thank you._

_**For what?**_

_For teaching me what it means to "love" something...or someone in this case._

Human's have weak hearts, did I mention that? I swear my heart nearly cracked under how touching that remark was. Okay, it wasn't that deep, but from a heartless Nobody like him, I'll accept it any day.

I suddenly became aware of the crowd around us, and I blushed.

"Come on," he said. "Let's retire for the day."

I nodded as he supported me to the door.

_**I'm glad things turned out like this.**_

_I can't believe I'm saying this, but to be honest, me too._

I didn't need to question the authenticity of those words. It was rare enough for him to say something like that anyways. I didn't care if he didn't mean it.

I caught sight of Nina on the way out.

She smiled at me.

I couldn't help it, I smiled back.

* * *

He ended up carrying me on his back halfway through. It was a pretty weird scene, but he insisted on it, and he'd outsmart me every time I tried to find a way down.

"No one's watching, sheesh," he joked.

"It's embarassing enough to be carried by someone," I said. "Twice as embarassing for that someone to be you."

He chuckled.

"So, we're officially recognized as a 'couple' now," he said. "Any thoughts?"

I didn't reply. The thoughts were too awkward to say aloud. In any case, I smiled in response.

"Thanks," I said, closing my eyes, "for coming back."

I wrapped my arms around his neck.

He smiled, then burst into laughter.

My eyes opened wide for two reasons. Firstly, he'd never laughed before. Not for any reason whatsoever. I'd told plenty of jokes before, but the most he ever did was chuckle. I wasn't even kidding this time, and he laughed. Which leads me into my second point, why laugh now?

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Never better," he replied.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked again.

He smiled, turning his head around.

"I'm fine. Is it a crime to try something new here?" he said.

"Well, sure, but you don't just laugh randomly at nothing," I responded. "Laughter is the audible expression for happiness and enjoyment."

"And I'd say that fits perfectly in this situation," he said.

I gasped. I'd never actually realized how much this had meant to him. I thought he might've come back out of pity for me or something.

Pity. Right. That's a feeling. Not for him. But so was happiness, right?

_**In any case, I'm glad you're here.**_

_Me too._

_**Things are going to get better from now on, aren't they?**_

_I'd certainly hope so._

_**Me too.**_

* * *

A lone figure stood at the edge of the Altar of Naught, chuckling to himself as he watched the gathering of hearts looming over the castle.

"The gears of fate are moving," Xemnas said. "Soon enough, you two shall be at the center of the stage."

Kingdom Hearts glowed especially bright tonight. It was as if it recognized that history was being made in the world today.

Xemnas chuckled quietly to himself.

"Enlighten me, Xion," he said. "Your next act will be a most interesting one."


	23. A Heartless Nobody

Chapter 23 ~ A Heartless Nobody

"Detention? How on earth did you wind up in detention?" Zexion asked, annoyed.

"Go blame the idiotic teacher," I said. "In any case, you don't have to wait for me."

"Even if you say that, you know I have nothing better to do," he replied.

"Oh, go do your homework or something," I said.

He put one hand on his book for a few seconds, then opened it and threw a couple of pieces of paper at me.

"Done," he said.

I snorted at him.

"I'll go if it makes you feel better though," Zexion said.

"Do whatever," I responded.

_Fine. See you later then, after your detention._

_**Buzz off.**_

_I thought you didn't want me to leave you alone anymore._

_**Well, in that situation, no. Now, buzz off.**_

_Contradictory much?_

I stared at him maliciously.

_Alright. Alright. Sheesh._

He rounded the corner and disappeared out of my sight just as I reached the doorway to my english teacher's office.

I knocked on the door twice, and opened it. My english teacher looked up from her paperwork and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Oh, hello Ino," the teacher greeted.

"Hi," I responded dryly.

"Here, I've prepared some extra make-up work for you," the teacher said.

I constantly wonder, do these guys just randomly spend their time thinking up new, innovative ways to torture students? I tried to poke around in her mind to figure out what she was thinking, but I stopped as soon as I felt a wave of exhaustion wash over me.

Right, can't read her mind as a human. A novice mistake.

I sighed and followed her shamefully as she led me out of the office and into the jail, I mean classroom.

She took her place at the teacher's desk and threw the page of questions on a random desk.

"You may leave when you're finished," she said as she curled up in her chair and started on a book.

I sat down quietly, pulled out a writing utensil, and started reading through the questions and the passage.

The questions didn't process in my head at all. It was all so boring to me, honestly. The situation in Romeo and Juliet isn't a very realistic depiction of love in our modern society. Unrealistic coincidence after unrealistic coincidence.

_Bored?_

My head deliberately cocked 90 degrees to the left at the sound. I chuckled under my breath. A perfect opportunity.

And who did I see there? None other than yours truly, on a tree branch, purposely mocking me, but I already knew that of course. I was actually setting him up for something else.

_Ah...I've been found. Damn you and your exceedingly visible reaction._

_**Sucks to be you.**_

I stuck my tongue out at him. It was a rather inelegant move, but effective nonetheless, because it got the point across.

He rolled his eyes at me.

The teacher looked up from her book and stared in the direction that I was staring in.

"Rion! How convenient," the teacher remarked. "You should be in here for detention too after missing so many days of class."

Without saying a word, Zexion crawled to the edge of the branch and knocked on the window.

_Open up. I'm too lazy to take the long way. Besides, I'll never hear the end of it if I try to escape now._

I pointed at the window.

"May I?" I asked.

"Sure," the teacher said, uninterested. "Just make sure he doesn't break a neck or anything. I don't want to be held liable."

Him? Break a neck? Climbing through a window? When pigs fly maybe.

Our school at one of those really old fashioned windows, so theoretically speaking, it'd be exceedingly easy to defenestrate someone, or let someone in in this case.

I shoved the window upwards and pulled him through the window, into the classroom.

"Ow," he complained as his knee hit the windowsill.

_**What a fake yelp of pain.**_

_I can complain when I want to._

He dusted off his clothes as I walked back to my seat.

"Rion. How nice of you to join us," the teacher taunted. "Since I didn't prepare a second copy of the question sheet, why don't you two just share one? It couldn't be more convenient since you guys have to live together anyways, so you can leave together once you're done."

"Understood, Miss," Zexion said, bowing like a gentleman.

He walked off and took a seat beside me, just for the fun of it. He had a pretty grumpy look on his face.

_Thanks a lot._

_**You're welcome. She'd nail you tomorrow for it anyways, so you might as well get it over with today.**_

_Good point, let me give you your much awaited punishment for dragging me in here with you when we get home. Oh, and remind me to fill your dreams with nightmares for the next couple of days._

I snorted.

_**You're heartless.**_

_I'm a Nobody._

_**A heartless Nobody at that.**_

He chuckled aloud.

_Of course._

"What's so funny?" the teacher asked suddenly, getting up.

"Oh, I was just looking at the brilliant pun in this question," Zexion lied smoothly.

"Pun?" the teacher asked. "Which question?"

_**Unintended pun apparently.**_

He chuckled again.

_No doubt._

"Number 4," he said.

The teacher glanced at the page.

"...Ah yes, that one," the teacher said. "Amazing that you noticed it. Good job, Rion."

"Thank you, Ms. Piemy," Zexion replied. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to finish these as quickly as possible."

"No problem, sorry for the disruption," she quickly said.

"That's...alright," Zexion said in a soothing tone.

_**You're such a player.**_

_I have to find some way to keep me entertained. This work lacks thought, and is too troublesome in general. To have to finish a minute's work in an hour. It's actually quite difficult to stall time._

_**You have me.**_

_I realize that. But I'm sure you realize that you're a horrible conversationalist._

_**Compared to you, true enough...I guess.**_

_The situation in Romeo and Juliet isn't a very realistic depiction of love in our modern society. Unrealistic coincidence after unrealistic coincidence._

_**That's what I just said.**_

I braced myself for his insulting comment and thought up several defence routes depending on what he would say.

_Great minds think alike._

_**No they don't...**_

Wait, did he just compliment me?

_**Did you just compliment me?**_

He didn't say anything.

_**So, that's how it's going to be, eh?**_

I smiled.

_**Thanks. For the vote of confidence.**_

He remained unresponsive, but I never needed anything more.

* * *

"Finally! That took way too long," he said.

"Agreed," I said.

"Next time, when you have detention, don't drag an innocent man into it with you," he teased.

"Innocent!?! Hardly," I responded. "So, what's on tonight's agenda?"

"The usual," he said. "Heartless elimination."

"Oh joy," I said. "Where again?"

"Beast's Castle again," he answered.

"Why always there?" I asked.

"Because that repulsive idiot of a Beast attracts a lot of the stronger Heartless," he said.

"Okay..." I said.

I didn't want to inquire any further about background information I didn't need to know. The thing was, I simply kill the Heartless, go home and spend the rest of the night sleeping, or carrying on elongated conversations with Zexion about pointless, trivial matters.

But if you asked me what my job was, I would've just shaken my head, pointed my finger at Zexion and said "ask him."

I didn't know. Didn't want to know either. Because my intuition told me that any more knowledge I obtain could hasten the approach of the lingering ominous, black clouds surrounding my future, and the slightest wrong move might just trigger an unstoppable chain reaction that tore everything apart. I didn't want to delve too far into matters that weren't really related to me. The fact was that if I did my job, I'd be fine. It's always been like that.

Hopefully, it will always be like that. I didn't want anything to change anymore. Naive, as usual.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yep," I responded quietly.

But it wasn't a declarative statement. To be honest, I wasn't really sure.

"Are you sure?" he inquired again.

"Yes, I'm fine, dummy," I said, looking up at him.

But he didn't respond. He had a troubled expression on his face as well.

I went back into the little corner of my mind to sulk. Both he and I knew that something was going to happen soon. Something that would tear apart the balance between us.

In that case, I'll enjoy the time I spend with him now as much as I can.

"Hey," I yelled, patting him on the back.

He looked at me a bit startled at my reaction.

"What are you sulking for?" I asked. "You don't have a right to sulk, you're a Nobody."

He smiled.

"Good point," he said, sighing.

Just looking at his expression made me feel a lot better. The way he thinks. How he talks. How he moves. I enjoy every moment of it.

Nothing's forever. Everyone knows that. But still, selfish as I may be, I want things to stay the way they are – just a bit longer.

* * *

"Great, where's that stupid Heartless this time?" I asked aloud as I ran threw the hallways of the Beast's Castle.

Zexion ran off to do some other thing, as usual, so I was left alone, running around like an idiot trying to find a Heartless.

I'd already ran through almost all of the rooms, but there had been no Heartless spotted anywhere.

Unless...

The ballroom.

There was a sudden surge of a dark aura from the ballroom and I rushed to the door, finding that it was locked.

Using Marluxia, I teleported to the other side of the door. To be honest, I wish I didn't.

I came face to face with one of those giant pureblood Heartless. A Dark Follower, I believe it was called? I'd already had two horrible memories from encounters with his "brothers" and I didn't want to make a third.

Interestingly enough, I wasn't scared at all. I'd learned a lot from the time I first came face to face with a Heartless, and I wouldn't let it go to waste.

"Let's dance," I said.

I reached out my hand, and from a strange looking violin materialized from the moisture of the air. With my other hand, I grabbed a bow and started playing.

At first, it was a gentle tone, because I couldn't move easily while playing, so I needed to establish a shield around me.

The monster banged a few times on my shield of water, and although it felt like giving way a few times, I decided that it was sufficient.

When that was done, I started with more vigorous strokes. Pillars of water erupted from the ground, swaying this way and that way under my command. The water circled around the giant and attacked various parts of the body, consuming as much of the darkness as it could. Sometimes I'd land part of his arm. Other times, the water would pierce right through his body.

I couldn't aim particularly well yet because I didn't have full control of the water yet, but when you're playing darts with a giant target, it's not that easy to miss.

Hm...regardless, I might ask Demyx for a lesson on control later.

I didn't notice that the parts that I hit started regenerating though. Oops. Must be some new type of Heartless. Nothing important. I'd merely change my plan of attack.

When the water hit something, I'd immediately crush it within the water so that it wouldn't regenerate fast enough.

After a while, the size became more manageable as something that I could finish in one single hit. I withdrew the water and allowed the violin to evaporate into the air.

I'd have some fun blowing up stuff with Axel now.

It was simple really. As the thing was regenerating, it wouldn't really bother to attack. Since it when through the trouble of actually inviting me to attack it, I would attack it. What logic, eh?

A single chakram formed in my right hand and I merely threw it into the giant Heartless. It groaned in pain as the fire-imbued weapon pierced its chest.

Oh fun fun. I love fiery explosions, did I mention that?

"It's been fun," I said.

The Heartless blew up, creating a massive crater in the floor. The explosion shook the whole castle violently as I struggled to keep my balance. But when all the smoke had faded, the Heartless was no more.

I guess I overdid that a bit. I sighed. Now I'd have to repair the damages to the room too. I walked to the edge of the crater, and touched the floor, which reformed instantaneously. It was as if nothing had ever happened.

I walked over to the balcony on the other side, which had a few dents here and there from the Heartless' inelegant movements. Fixed that in a second too.

I walked back to the center of the ballroom. Now I'd just have to wait for...

"In there!" someone yelled.

Huh? I got up abruptly in response to the voice.

The door flew open as a familiar face stepped through the door.

No...way. What the heck's he doing here?

"Gawrsh, Sora, I could've sworn I felt the presence of a Heartless in here," Goofy said.

"I don't see anything," the boy said.

"I felt it too and hey!" Donald yelled, pointing at me.

The three immediately recoiled.

"Organization XIII!" they yelled in unison, as they assumed battle stance.

What? I'm lost.

The boy ran up to me and summoned his weapon. Keyblade. Keyblade? Roxas. Keyblade. Sora. Keyblade. Is there a connection?

I didn't even notice when he lashed out at me. I was too shocked to avoid it anyways.

A hard push shoved me out of the way.

I didn't have to look to know who it was.

_**It's about time. You're late.**_

_What are you doing?_

What am I supposed to be doing?

He leapt back and grunted at my ignorance.

In two quick strokes, he pulled out his book and prepared one of his most devastating illusions to use on Sora. (From personal experience, I deliberately tried to sit through it once and it nearly ripped my conscience into two before he cancelled it.)

Darkness gathered in the ballroom, covering it in a shade of pitch black. Sora and his companions looked increasingly distressed as the darkness moved like a disease to very inch of the ballroom.

I gasped at the scene. I'd never seen him like this before. So serious to take down a little boy, who wasn't even an enemy for that matter.

I concentrated on dispelling the illusion, and in response, the darkness surrounding the room slowly faded, breaking down and disappearing into particles of light.

Zexion shot an angry look at me.

Panting from exhaustion, I dashed to Sora's aid, standing in front of him in defence.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I yelled across the room to Zexion.

But the sudden exhaustion was too much for me to handle. I collapsed in Sora's arms and blacked out.

* * *

Zexion grunted angrily and took advantage of the confusion.

He leapt forward, tossed his lexicon at the hero, who was not prepared at all. He took the shot in his face, dropping the girl in his arms.

Zexion reached out and caught the girl just before she hit the ground, doubling back to gain some distance.

It wasn't possible. The odds were against him. He couldn't win this fight while he had to protect her.

"That idiot," he cursed as he created a portal.

He swore under his breath and withdrew into the darkness.

It'd have to be another day.


	24. Scars

Chapter 24 ~ Scars

"What was that for?" I asked when I recovered.

"What was what for?" he said.

"Don't answer my question with a question," I said sharply. "What was that for? You were serious about ripping them apart. That reminds me..."

He'd reacted like that in Hollow Bastion too. He'd shoved me aside at first sight of the guy and he wouldn't answer my questions then either.

"Who is that kid, really? Why does he look like Roxas?" I demanded.

There was silence as he avoided eye contact with me. His eyes swept from one corner of the room to the other, shrugging in discomfort.

"Fine, if you won't answer them, I'll go ask someone else," I said, storming out of my room angrily.

"Don't," he called weakly.

But he wasn't about to stop me. He wasn't in a position to. Nor could he.

I wanted some answers, and if he couldn't provide them, someone else probably could. A quick scan told me Roxas was out on a mission, so I'd ask the person I assumed to be the most well-informed man in the vicinity of the area.

I walked into the mission centre, as I liked to call it. Luckily, not many people were there. It wouldn't have been nice if too many people overheard. I think it was just Saix and the slacker, I mean Demyx. I didn't care if Demyx heard. I don't think he would care either for that matter. He was too busy strumming on that sitar of his to even bother paying attention.

"Hello, Xion," Saix said. "What can I do for you?"

"Hi," I greeted with the same amount of enthusiasm. (I'm being sarcastic by the way.) "I have a question."

Saix raised his eyebrows.

"On my last mission to Beast's Castle, and a couple of times before that, I've seen this boy that looks a lot like Roxas and has the same weapon too," I said. "Can you tell me who he is? He says his name is Sora, but that's not really what I want to know."

"You've spoken with him?" Saix asked with an urgent tone.

"Yeah?" I answered, my confidence shrinking by the second. "So, what's his relationship with Roxas? Does he know?"

Saix sighed.

"I suggest you don't stick your nose into this any further, or you'll regret it. It's none of your concern. Just deal with your missions and see to it that they're done," Saix said.

I lost it.

"You're just like him. 'It's none of your concern.' That may be true, but what's wrong with me knowing?" I demanded.

I surprised myself. Why did I want to know? What a good question. There was just something about that boy that made this whole situation seem wrong.

"Zexion was serious about utterly destroying him, I mean, he's just a kid," I yelled. "You tell him."

"He's an enemy," Saix said.

"He's a what?" I asked.

"An enemy," Saix repeated. "A most dangerous one at that."

"Why haven't I been informed of this?" I asked.

Saix turned on me, eyes glaring down viciously. I don't think he liked his authority being challenged.

"A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing," he said.

I would've pressed on further, but those eyes shot me the most dangerous message: "Get wrapped up any further in this, and you'll be sorry."

I watched as Saix walked out of the room, head held high.

* * *

"I don't recall you reporting said incident," Saix stated, turning around to face Zexion, who was leaning against the wall just outside the mission centre.

Zexion chuckled.

"I'm sorry, it must have slipped off my to-do list," Zexion said, pulling out a long sheet of paper out of his lexicon which cascaded down to the floor.

Without giving the paper a single look, Saix continued.

"Has she confronted Roxas about this?" Saix asked.

"I don't think so," Zexion answered.

Saix nodded once.

"Good," Saix noted.

"Hardly," Zexion said.

"The Superior will hear about this," Saix said. "By disobeying orders to report anything of interest, you may have just put her in a very unfavourable position, Zexion."

"I wouldn't really classify this as interesting now, would I?" Zexion asked.

"Oh really?" Saix challenged.

The sheet disappeared.

"Do what you will," Zexion snorted, defeated.

Saix nodded, promptly fading into the darkness.

Zexion got up, and sighed.

"Things are getting to be very troublesome," he said aloud. "I don't know how long this can..."

He shook his head. Without another word, he walked into the grey room.

* * *

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah," I replied, clearly distracted.

An enemy? What on earth are they thinking? That kid, an enemy? Are they going to tell me to eliminate Roxas next?

"Zexion," I said.

"Yes," he answered.

"Who is Sora really?" I asked. "I want to know."

Zexion sighed.

"Well, I don't have much to tell you," he said. "Saix' has already covered the main part."

"The fact that he's an enemy?" I asked. "But then why did he save me back then in Port Royal?"

"Because you needed saving," he answered.

I paused. How in the world would you possibly consider that bad?

"In any case, don't get too friendly with him," he said. "Nothing good will come out of it."

"Why?" I asked.

He didn't say anything. His eyes were focused ahead.

"Zexion, please," I begged, grabbing onto his hand.

He flinched a bit as he heard the tone of my voice, but he shook my hand off and continued walking. He was silent for the rest of our trip back to the mansion from school.

I tried to ask him again later, but he'd already reached his limit. I'd never get anymore out of him.

* * *

"Oh, hey Roxas," I said.

"Oh, hey Xion," Roxas replied. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah," I said. "Um...I have a question for you."

"Okay..." Roxas said hesitantly. "Fire away."

"Well...there's this boy..." I started.

"Roxas, get over here, we're leaving," a voice interjected.

Both our heads turned to see Axel waving his hands like a madman.

"Oh, hey Xion," Axel said. "Been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Excuse me," Axel said as he walked over and dragged Roxas away under his arm.

"Hey, let go of me, Axel," Roxas said.

"We're late as it is," Axel argued. "Saix will be all over me if we don't leave now."

He threw Roxas into the portal.

"Just a tip, Xion, Roxas isn't the best person to ask if you have boy trouble," Axel advised.

I nodded awkwardly.

"Alright then, as long as you understand. Bye Xion!" Axel yelled, walking into the portal himself.

I waved.

"Bye..." I said tentatively.

That was sure weird, and inconvenient. They'd walked away without me even getting a chance to ask. I couldn't help but think that it was on purpose.

I sighed. Maybe another day.

But who knew when I'd next see Roxas? It'd be a while in any case.

* * *

"Xion," Saix called as I entered the room. "I have a special mission for you today."

"A special mission?" I asked, looking up.

Zexion glanced over at us from the corner with a concerned expression on his face.

"Come see me when you're ready," he said.

I quickly looked towards Zexion's direction, then looked away again. To be honest, I didn't really want to talk to him again today.

"Okay, let's hear it," I said, turning back towards Saix.

Saix threw me an envelope, which I caught easily between my fingers.

"Open it when you get there," Saix said, creating a portal for me.

I didn't bother to ask about the details. I'd just get there, do the mission and go home. It wasn't that hard.

"Wait," a voice called, causing us both to turn and look.

I watched as Zexion approached slowly. But I didn't really want to hear whatever he wanted to say, so I turned back around and walked through the portal.

* * *

It was raining lightly when I got there.

At first glance, it looked very much like my home planet, but then again, I couldn't really see much, because it was all dark. On second thought, that wasn't possible. Why would they send me to Earth? I'd never even seen a single Heartless here before. There wasn't anything for me to "clean up" here.

As usual, I was wrong.

I opened the envelope. Lighting a fire on the end of my fingertip, I read the contents before the paper became soaked with water.

And dropped them on the floor. In the pouring rain.

I got one word to describe what I saw in those papers: shock.

He couldn't be serious. I know I've eliminated plenty of Heartless, but this...

I dropped to the ground, shuddering violently. I hugged myself for comfort in the rain.

"I told you to wait up, didn't I?" Zexion called from behind.

I didn't turn around. I still sat there, shivering in the coldness of the rain. Simultaneously, warm hands wrapped around my body. I looked up.

"Zexion..." I said. "What should I do?"

"That's why I told you to wait," Zexion said quietly, hugging me tightly.

"What should I do...?" I repeated.

"If you had waited a second, I might've been able to help you, but now that you've already accepted the mission, you have to do it," Zexion said.

"But I can't," I protested weakly. "How do you expect me to..."

Zexion sighed heavily, sitting down beside me. He pulled me closer to himself.

"I'll do what I can for today," Zexion said.

"But I can't possibly let you do...all...that," I said. "It wouldn't be fair."

"Now since when have you played fair?" Zexion asked teasingly.

"Don't joke around," I whispered quietly. "I'm being serious here, I can't let you do something like this."

"It doesn't matter," he said. "I won't feel anything anyways."

"Stop it with that," I said. "You know as well as I do that...yeah..."

He stopped talking.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I can do this," I said.

"But if you don't, you won't be able to go back," Zexion pointed out. "And you'll be on their hitlist."

I nodded.

"Quite frankly, I don't want that happening," Zexion whispered quietly. "So here's what we'll do. Just sit here relax and I'll come back in about an hour or so."

"There's no way that you're going to shoulder the sin alone," I shot back.

"It's alright, I'm a Nobody. I can take it," he reasurred.

"Nobody or not...fine, okay," I agreed. "But I'll take the main target."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, firm in my resolve. "I'm not going to let you do this alone."

Zexion thought about it for a moment and gave in.

"Alright, but if it's too much for you, I'll be there," Zexion comforted.

I smiled.

"Thanks," I said.

"You know it'd be a lot easier if we could teleport into his office without having to kill any of the security guards," Zexion started, "but Saix wanted it to clearly look like the feat is humanly possible, so we have to do it the long way."

"Right," I responded.

It was simple really. I had to infiltrate the office building, kill any of the security guards that got in my way and kill the owner, Timothy Yennigan. Apparently some of his future plans would be obstructing the Organization's goals in some ways which I couldn't possibly fathom, but I wasn't one to question the Organization's motives.

Tonight's mission wasn't a difficult one, because unlike the Heartless, the target wouldn't offer any resistance in the first place, so what was it I found so hard about having to kill another human?

I shuddered at the thought again.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Zexion asked again.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered.

He supported me up from the ground and we walked up a miniature hill. We came face-to-face with a gigantic office building. Everything was silent, absolutely silent.

"18th floor, 2nd window to the right," Zexion said. "Just wait for a second while I shut off all the security systems."

He disappeared for a couple of minutes, returning with a smile on his face.

"The system has way too many flaws and opportunities for hackers to take advantage of. Really, they need to hire better staff," Zexion said.

"No, you're just smart," I responded sarcastically.

"Alright, so the systems are all shut down, so it's just me you, about 20 night guards and one target," Zexion said. "Ready?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding and mentally preparing myself.

"You can get up there first, I'll take the long way in and meet you up there in about 5 minutes," he said.

"Yeah," I repeated, as he quietly walked into the door of the building.

I stood there for a couple of minutes, unsure of what to do. Once in a while, I'd hear the occasionally desperate scream for help and shudder at the image that would form in my mind.

Remember, he's doing this for you.

I took a deep breath and teleported up to Yennigan's room.

Of course, he was startled, shocked, and surprised.

"How d-d-did you...?" he blurted out, unable to finish his sentence.

I merely materialized a gun, and pointed it at him.

"Who are you?" he finally asked.

I'll respect him and answer his question, just this once.

"Name's Xion. Organization XIII's No. XIV," I said.

It just sounded really weird when I said it.

"So you're here to assassinate me?" he asked.

I didn't answer. I merely held him at gunpoint, my hand trembling. I brought my left hand up to the gun for more support.

Then it started. At first, it was just my hands, but the trembling soon spread to my arms, then to my head and my legs, until my whole body started shaking violently.

For the first time since I obtained this necklace, I was downright scared. Not of dying. Not of getting killed, but of killing someone else.

"Xion," Zexion called quietly, opening the door from behind me.

He watched me as I stood there, trembling from head to toe.

"It isn't possible for you to do something like this, is it?" he asked.

No answer.

"Stand aside," he said.

"No!" I shot at him. "Don't move, or I'll shoot you."

"Xion..." Zexion faltered.

"This is something I have to do," I said. "I can't rely on you all the time."

"I understand," he said. "I'll wait right here if you need me."

The longer I waited, the more painful this would be for me. If I had to do it, it'd be now.

My hand tightened on the trigger. And I pulled it.

A deafening bang. Sirens sounded outside.

"Uh oh," Zexion said. "They're here already? That's pretty fast. Come on, let's go."

He tugged gently on my arm. But I stood there, frozen to my spot.

I couldn't help but keep my eyes fixated on the blood that was gushing out from his body. I stood there, just eyeing the blood as it flowed across the floor.

I collapsed, shaking violently.

"Xion..." Zexion said with a hint of pity.

We both listened as the voices outside got louder and louder.

"Come on, we have to go now!" he yelled urgently.

But I was still too fixated on the seeping blood to hear what he was saying. My eyes opened wide.

He lifted his hand and put it over my head.

"Sleep," he commanded.

And sleep I did.

* * *

I had a nightmare of that man's ghost repeatedly chasing me. Even when I'd cut off some of his limbs, he'd still crawl towards me and lash out at me with his hands. The ghost followed me everywhere I went. And everytime I turned around, he was there.

I woke up with a start.

"You okay?" Zexion asked quietly.

I sat up slowly, taking in my surroundings. We were back on earth, in the multi-purpose of the mansion. There was a pot of freshly brewed tea sitting on the table in front of me, and I was lying on top of Zexion's lap, on the sofa.

"Drink," he commanded.

Without question, I obeyed him and started drinking the tea that I assumed Kanon had prepared, though he was no where in sight.

"This is why you shouldn't push yourself," he whispered.

I didn't respond though. I was completely and utterly traumatized. It was one of those once in a lifetime situations where you have a strange mental breakthrough. Up until now, I'd always thought that I would kill so many people in my life if I were given the chance.

If you asked me now, I wouldn't be so sure anymore. In fact, I wouldn't, period.

So this was what pain felt like. How frightening.


	25. Nightmare

Chapter 25 ~ Nightmare

"Are you sure you're okay?" Zexion asked for the third time.

"Yeah," I responded, a bit annoyed.

"You're fine for school today?" Zexion pressed on.

"Yes, sir," I said, saluting him.

He rolled his eyes at me.

"I'm fine, don't worry...sheesh," I repeated.

We continued silently on the rest of the walk to school.

To be honest, I was feeling okay; for the most part, I'd forgotten about what happened, so it was all good.

My first three classes went without incident, mostly because that mother hen kept his eye on me like a hawk. He'd confirm if I was okay every couple of minutes – stratch that, every two seconds more like it.

_You still okay?_

_**For the 342th time today, yes, dammit!**_

_You counted?_

_**Kind of hard not to when you're bothering me like this. You know, the more you remind me, the more think of it.**_

_Sorry..._

_**It's fine, sheesh. Just leave me alone for a while.**_

He obeyed, and remained silent.

I sighed.

Even though I'd said that, I was still feeling a bit insecure. Every so often when I blinked, I'd still see the blood all over my hands, but once I blinked once more, I'd be fine again. Even so, just that one second could make me go paranoid and shake violently for a while.

I tried to shake it off numerous times, but the image was always there; as far as I knew, it'd never fade away.

_You..._

I hate eavesdroppers.

But you know, there wasn't anything else for him to say. He just broke off right there.

I'd like to think that everything was absolutely fine...until 4th period, when it actually wasn't so nice in reality.

"Okay class, today we're going to watch the movie _**The DaVinci Code**_ to study symbols and characters, and you're all going to have to write an essay on it," the teacher said.

Groans swept across the room, along with a couple of people complaining that they'd already seen it.

"I've seen it four times already...can't we watch something else?" one student complained on purpose.

"Then I'd suppose you wouldn't mind handing your essay in right now, would you, Eric?" the teacher asked with a sadistic expression on his face.

Eric looked uncomfortably, then fell silent.

"Now then, as I was saying, we're going to watch _**The DaVinci Code**_ and write an essay on various symbols and characters," the teacher repeated.

I looked over at Zexion, who had a bit of a troubled expression on his face.

_**Are you okay?**_

He chuckled.

_Oh the irony. You're asking me now, are you?_

I deliberately stuck my tongue out at him; he responded with an indifferent look and a mischievous grin.

The teacher eyed us awkwardly.

Zexion turned back towards the teacher, wearing the smile of a perfect student. The teacher was immediately caught by it, nodding at us.

"Now that no one has any objections, I'll put it on," the teacher said, pressing play.

The lights went out.

_**Oh joy. This will be eventful. At least I've never seen it before.**_

Zexion didn't make any effort to respond. He merely sat there, looking a bit bored and a bit worried simultaneously.

_Um..._

_**What?**_

_Never mind._

_**Okay...**_

The film started running. I watched carefully as a mysterious old man was pursued by this strange hooded character, asking him where the keystone was, shooting him in the stomach.

Blood.

I shuddered at the thought.

_Don't watch if you don't want to. I can just write the thing for you._

I nodded.

_**I'm fine.**_

I mustered up the courage to look at the screen again. To be honest, I wish I hadn't.

Shortly, Robert Langdon arrived at the scene, along with Sophie Neveu. And that's when I cracked.

Someone sighed loudly.

All of a sudden, a large hole, blocked with various papers appeared in the middle of the wall, letting the sun shine through. The sound that the blast made was a bit dulled though, thankfully.

Someone flicked on the lights.

Everyone crouched away from the wall, staring at the giant hole. Luckily, it was one of the rooms that made up the corner of the school, so the hole led outside.

"What is that?" someone yelled, pointing at the hole and shaking furiously.

The pages fluttered slowly in the wind and one by one, they returned to their original place in the book of retribution.

"That's why I told you not to stress yourself," someone said.

The whole class searched for the source of the sound; consequently, they saw me, shuddering violently in my seat while clenching my head. I swear my eyes were about to pop out.

There was only one thing on my mind, no matter how much I tried to shake it off: blood. That night's events replayed themselves over and over again in my head.

Blood all over my hands. I was a killer.

_Calm down._

I was going to go insane. I was seriously going to go insane.

"Ino, it's okay, we're all here together," Bianca said quietly, trying to calm me.

Zexion chuckled quietly.

"You're wrong," Zexion shot back. "She's the one who created this hole, you see...and the real problem is over there."

He pointed at the TV.

"Someone press stop," Zexion commanded.

No one moved.

"Or I'll kill you all," he added coldly.

Someone quickly ran up to press stop.

"Now don't move," he said. "Or I'll kill you."

He walked over to me slowly, wrapping his hands around my body.

_**Zexion...don't be so cold to them.**_

I grabbed his hands, and clutched them tightly.

_Nothing else matters right now, just try to calm down._

"Calm down," he said again. "Calm down."

The rest of the class was just sitting there, too afraid to do anything.

"I'm okay now," I said, shaking myself out of it.

"Can you fix the wall?" he asked calmly.

"Yeah..." I said, nodding.

His relaxed his grip around me, allowing me to get up. I limped over to the wall, laying a hand on it.

The wall reformed instantaneously, making me gasp with exhaustion.

Zexion quickly ran over to support me.

"I'm okay," I repeated, my vision slowly blurring out.

He turned towards the class.

"Don't worry, you guys won't remember any of this. I'll just erase all of your memories," he said. "So calm down."

No one moved, no one said anything.

Zexion sat me down in a corner. One by one, he put them all to sleep, and started blurring their memories on the surface. He couldn't rearrange them like Namine could, but he could make them forget things that just happened.

"All done," he said, wiping the sweat off his face.

He lifted me off the ground casually.

"Let's go home," he said, "before they wake up."

I nodded.

"Thank you," I whispered quietly, lifting my hand up to touch his face.

He smiled.

"Your welcome," he responded.

* * *

"Don't give her any of those missions anymore," Zexion demanded.

Of course, Saix was a bit surpirsed, because it was the first time that the cloaked schemer had confronted him about something so openly. He turned around slowly, glaring at Zexion dangerously.

"Spare me the pathetic display of your useless infatuation with that girl. If I had a heart, I'd be dying of laughter right now," Saix said haughtily. "Do you really think you're in a position to order me around? Now stop your incessant whining and get back to your work. Even if you insist to accompany her on her missions, your work still needs to be done. Don't dawdle and get going."

Zexion stared at him coldly as he walked out the room.

"Axel, please, try to convice Saix for me," Zexion said, turning around.

Axel walked over to face the man.

"He's not the type of person who'll listen to what anyone has to say," Axel replied.

"I'm b-b-begging you here," Zexion half-cried.

Axel paused, shaking his head in disgust.

"Since when have you ever 'begged' for anything? Generally, when you want something, all you do is hide in the shadows and pull a few strings. A ruthless tactician is pleading for me to do something that he, himself knows is pointless. You really have become weak," Axel stated bluntly.

Axel stormed out of the room uncomfortably.

Alone, Zexion chuckled to himself.

"You're right, I definetly have become weak since meeting her, but I don't regret it at all. This is the first time since the beginning of my existence that there's ever been a meaning to life. I don't want to lose sight of it," he contemplated.

There was a short pause.

"But he's right, I can't be relying on anyone else. I'll protect her...with my own two hands," Zexion declared proudly.

Satisfied, he walked out of the room.


	26. Knight in Shining Armor

Chapter 26 ~ Knight in Shining Armor

It felt as if Zexion was being chased by something. Something of unspeakable evil.

He tried to run, but to no avail; the uncomfortable feeling that he was being watched was always there.

He saw a pool of light in front of him. Feeling strangely comforted by its presence, Zexion walked closer to the light, when the strange puddle lunged at him, grabbing his hand forcefully.

Little by little, the light became to take form, until a familiar figure was standing in front of him, hugging him for comfort.

"Xion..." Zexion whispered, squeezing her form tightly.

Suddenly, the light particles split into a million pieces and faded into nothingness.

"Xion!" Zexion yelled desperately, attempting to grab the air around him.

The uncomfortable feeling returned as quickly as it had left him: The strange feeling that he was being watched, that he was in fact, being used as the puppet for a bigger scheme altogether.

"You've got to be joking. No one uses me," Zexion declared boldly.

He was the Cloaked Schemer, No. VI of Organization XIII. He wouldn't stand to be an insignificant pawn of someone else. He made his own decisions. Everything moved to his accord. And nothing suspicious could slip past his notice.

That's when he woke up with a start.

His eyes opened abruptly, as if he'd only been resting two minutes earlier. Crawling out of his bed, he slowly walked over to the window and leaned gently on the windowsill.

"A dream, eh?" he asked himself.

Not that it mattered. He'd always lived for himself, and only himself. But it was just that this game he was playing involved one extra chess piece. One that he wouldn't be willing to sacrifice.

"That's all," he decided.

A bit confused by his own thoughts, he lay down on his bed once again to do some more thinking. It'd still be a while until she woke up.

* * *

"Good morning, Master," Kanon said politely.

"Oh, hey," I responded casually. "Could you get my clothes ready?"

"Not a problem, Master," Kanon answered, disappearing into thin air.

He appeared seconds after he left with a change of clothes in his hands.

"Thank you, Kanon," I said.

He nodded, disappearing once again.

I sighed, changing as I tried to calm myself from the past couple of events. I'd tried to forget the past and move on. With Zexion's conditioning, little by little, I'd managed to put it behind me. It got to a point where I didn't really care any more. I really didn't. What's done is done.

I just hope I never have to go through that again.

I left my room and walked down the stairs at a casual pace, and found Kanon waiting for me at the bottom.

"Where are you going today, Master?" Kanon asked.

I stared at him weirdly.

"School..." I said.

It felt really awkward talking to a Nobody with artificial intelligence.

"Excuse me Master, but it's Saturday today, and you don't have school," Kanon said.

I froze.

You know, it feels really awkward being bested by a Nobody with artificial intelligence.

Unable to contain the humiliation, I made something up.

"Right...Nina said she wanted to see me at school today...to uh...work on a project, so I have to go to school," I said sheepishly. "So, I'll be taking the car."

"I'll drive you, Master," Kanon insisted.

"That's quite all right," I said quickly. "I'll drive myself today."

I don't actually have a license, but that's okay. I have decent motor skills and could forge one on the spot if I needed to.

"I understand. Have a nice day, Master," Kanon said as I walked out the door.

I walked towards the luxury limousine parked on the driveway.

Really, he couldn't have gotten a more inconspicuous car.

I opened the passenger's door on instinct, forgetting the fact that I would be driving myself to who knows where today. Sighing, I moved to open the door again when I realized that I wasn't alone in the car.

"Er...hi Miss," the man said.

"Hi, and you might be?" I asked.

"Subaru," he stated shyly.

He was a handsome man, and looked to be no older than Zexion or me, but there was a subtle sense of royalty to his words and his actions. Very intriguing, really. Great, now I'm curious.

"Subaru, eh? So, what are you doing here?" I asked patiently.

"Well, I'm an orphan, you see...and while Master Rion was at the orphanage the other day, he offered to adopt me as a servant," he explained. "It was kind of weird, since Master Rion is the same age as me, but I'm glad to be of any service at all to Master Rion."

Zexion adopted a human kid? As a servant? Is that even possible? Was this guy sane?

I scanned his head quickly. There was nothing of interest that would've caught Zexion's attention. What the heck happened here?

Well, in any case...

"You're working here starting today?" I asked.

"Yesterday, actually, but yes Miss," he replied.

"Okay, first of all, drop the Master and the Miss, please," I said.

"But that's what Kanon calls you," he complained. "As a fellow servant, I should..."

What a strange guy.

"Let's not argue over trivial matters please. Drop the Master and the Miss," I repeated.

"Yes," he said, nodding.

I sighed. What idiot did Zexion pick up now?

"Well, I got nowhere to go today, so why don't you just drive around?" I asked. "You have a license, right?"

He flashed a card at me. A plain card.

"Right here, Rion gave me one yesterday. Apparently he had some connections, so he got one for me easily, even though I've never driven a car until today," he explained.

A blank card. Clearly an illusion. As for driving, apparently he took the car for a spin around the circular driveway for a while just this morning. I wouldn't exactly call that experience. Oh well.

"Well, you'd do well not to take anything for granted," I said. "When you get the time, get your driver's license the traditional way."

"I understand. Shall we get going then?" he asked. "Where to?"

"Anywhere," I said.

He nodded, pulling out of the driveway.

Thankfully, he was a natural at driving, otherwise, it might've been pretty ugly.

* * *

I rang the doorbell impatiently as I felt the eyes of the whole neighbourhood on my back. Well, on the car mostly, but on me too.

Nina came to the door after a few minutes, looking extraordinarily surprised to see me.

"Oh, Ino!" she exclaimed. "Why are you here today?"

"A friend?" her dad asked behind her.

"Yes, do you have anything to do right now?" I responded.

"Where's Ze-Rion?" she asked.

"Who knows where," I said. "So you got time?"

"Yep...I think," she said, checking with her parents quickly.

She returned moments later, with her bag in tow.

"Let's go," she said, stepping out of her house.

The new "butler" immediately caught her attention.

"Who's that?" she asked, as we watched him adjust his tie.

"A new guy that Zexion picked up yesterday," I responded. "I couldn't possibly fathom why he would..."

I stopped, immediately sensing the change in atmosphere.

No way.

Nina blushed a bit when I looked at her and read her thoughts, which confirmed my suspicions.

She totally liked him.

How strange of Zexion, just to go pick up another stranger for Nina's sake. He'd probably searched the whole world for her soulmate, finding him in an orphanage of all places.

Interesting. Very interesting.

Trying not to make a big scene of it and embarass her, I dragged her along.

"Let's go," I said, tugging at her arm.

We ended up driving to the park of all places, mostly because I didn't feel like going anywhere else. There were a lot of kids there, which was a bit annoying, but Subaru dealt with them pretty easily, so it was all good.

"You're good with kids," I remarked.

"Really?" he asked, blushing a bit.

I laughed quietly.

"So," Nina started, "why am I here again?"

"I was bored," I said.

"I would've expected Zexion to be back by now," Nina said.

_Miss me?_

"Well speak of the devil," I replied.

Getting off the swing, I walked over to the tree where he was hiding behind, followed by Nina and Subaru.

"It's too sunny today for my liking," he said.

"Good for you," I replied.

"Hey Rion," Nina said.

"Hello," he greeted in return.

_Enjoy the surprise?_

_**Hardly. You could've told me earlier. It's not like you to do something charitable anyways.**_

_I was bored._

I found myself grinning at that remark. Birds of a feather, truly do stick together.

"Well, we have to go," Zexion said, pulling me to his side. "Subaru, you can drive her home, right?"

"Yes," Subaru responded quickly.

"Good," Zexion replied. "We'll see you two later then."

He walked away while I hastily hurried to follow him.

_**That was subtle, eh? With the "you two"...**_

_Ah, you noticed did you?_

_**Only an idiot wouldn't.**_

_Well it's good that he's still relatively new to the outside world, isn't it?_

_**Very.**_

Zexion chuckled.

* * *

"Today's mission involves stopping the electricity flow to this building," he said.

"It's on Earth, again?" I asked.

"Yeah, sorry. I asked Saix for another mission, but he was insistent. 'Work needs to be done,' was what he said," Zexion explained. "You just have to cut off all electricity to the building and shut down the systems."

"That's all?" I asked, a bit doubtful.

"Yeah, that's it. Apparently they want to steal a component of some kind, but that's not in your job description," he said. "Well then, excuse me, because I have my own mission to attend to in Wonderland. So once you're done, just go home by yourself. You don't have to travel between worlds, so you can get back by yourself, right?"

I hate that world.

"Well yeah. Anyways, good luck with that," I replied.

"Bye," he said, kissing me gently on the cheek before he disappeared into the darkness.

I just have to stop all the electricity, right? Piece of cake.

I walked around the building, searching the ground for the power lines. I found them with relative ease. Intuition, as I like to call it.

I overloaded the power lines with electricity, which activated the circuit breaker.

The lights in the building flickered on and off, until they came to a full stop. The whole area was absolutely dark.

Well, that should keep them from fixing anything anytime soon. It ought to give the Organization a full week or so to do whatever they want.

"That was an easy mission. Well, to home I go," I said to myself.

And so I did.

* * *

He watched from the rooftop of the building, until his eyes were able to make out the pink petals that remained everytime she teleported somewhere else. Checking that her presence was no longer there, he started to act.

Jumping down from the roof of the building, he entered the front of the building and easily defeated what little guards there were.

"Now then, today's target is Gimble Machaven, as I recall. Owner of this chain of pharmaceuticals," Zexion said aloud.

"You're after the boss?" one of the guards down the hall asked, as he pulled his gun out.

"Don't wave such a foolish item in front of me," Zexion said.

The guard pulled the trigger. The bullet, meeting a page of his lexicon, fell straight to the ground. He fired again. This one was slashed in half, straight down the middle.

"You're insane!" the guard yelled in fright.

"I'm perfectly sane," he assured the guard. "I'm doing this to protect someone who is dear to me. I'm sure humans have people like that do...people who are dear to them."

He walked up to the guard slowly, like a tiger stalking its prey.

"Stop it!" the guard yelled. "Don't come any closer."

The guard backed up slowly when he realized that he was the only one left standing. He turned around in a panic and ran.

"You know," a voice came from behind him, "it's a shame, I've kind of taken a liking to you too."

The guard ran full speed down the hallway without turning around, only to find that the murderer was standing right in front of him.

He came to an abrupt stop.

Zexion reached out with his hand, feeling the side of the man's face.

"You know, it's just not as smooth as her's," he remarked.

"Her's?" the man asked.

Zexion chuckled devilishly.

"You're Gimble, aren't you?" Zexion asked. "I'll admit, it's pretty smart of you though, to come out dressed as a guard and hoping to make it through the commotion that way. But you neglected to take care of your subordinates. What a low life form. Not that I'm one to talk."

"You monster!" Gimble yelled in desperation.

"Actually, I'm a Nobody, not that you'd understand," Zexion said. "It's been fun, Mr. Machaven."

With a quick movement of his hand, the man fell to the floor, permanently unconscious.

As he looked down the hallway and realized what he had just done, he felt nothing. No sorrow, no pity and no guilt. Compared to the her who could easily be swayed and ruled by her emotions, this was a good alternative. He'd do all the dirty work instead.

"It's better this way," Zexion said, disappearing into the darkness.


	27. Blossoms of Love

Chapter 27 ~ Blossoms of Love

"June 14?" I demanded. "Could you have picked a cheesier date?"

He was obviously trying to be witty, but anything he said in defense just fell short of complete and utter stupidity. Eventually, he tried to dismiss it by shrugging it off.

"It's just that we happen to have a break from work that day," he started. "Nothing more. Sheesh."

I slammed the pile of posters on his desk.

"Liar," I said, snarling.

He forced an evil-looking smile on his face.

Every year, the student council would put on some special event. In the past couple of years, the events tended to be unexciting because they always lacked preparation.

"But this year, it'll be different," Zexion said, continuing my train of thought.

I usually opt out of events like these, because...well (and I'm trying to put this in the least blunt way possible), they tend to suck.

"But this year..." Zexion repeated.

I sighed.

"But this year, since you're the president, everyone's going to be utterly blown away at how darn spectacular the thing is, right?" I asked, uninterested.

"Your vocabulary is rather unsophisticated, but in essesnce, you're correct," he confirmed, also slightly bored.

Well, he'd probably make it a night to remember. After all, this is Zexion we're talking about. He'd probably have it prepared a whole month earlier, and spend the remaining time adding useless final touches to his masterpiece.

The president is the universe's richest man. He could perfectly forge as much money as he wanted, and probably earn it honestly even faster, based on his skills. Even so, we decided way beforehand to keep the budget to a minimum, as to not arouse too much suspicion.

I'm sure the past events could have been twice as decent if they had actually planned them carefully...or if they had unlimited cash at their disposal...or if they had Zexion. With all the contributions I'm making to this stupid thing, this year's will be slightly better, I hope.

I took this time to look at the flyer.

"Ballroom dancing," I stated.

"It's time we separated the humans from the savages," Zexion said, his tone becoming more sarcastic with each passing second.

"So anyone who can't ballroom dance, is a savage..." I concluded.

"Correct," he said.

There was just no hope for this guy to understand humans.

"Location: 5159 Ecklebury Place..." I read.

I paused, frowning. The disbelief turned into anger in a few seconds. My eyebrows began twitching uncontrollably. I spoke carefully, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully this was all some big joke or something.

"That's our address. You do realize right?" I said, trying to stay calm.

He nodded with a grin on his face.

My first thought was that we'd finally get to use the ballroom. My second thought was...

"You idiot," I said as calmly as I could manage.

"I knew you'd say that," he said. "I also know that..."

I raised my hand, preparing to slap the living daylight out of his face.

A voice came and I froze in my position.

"Rion! Ino!" our supervisor called from across the hall. "You'll have to leave in about half an hour, so finish up, oka..."

He paused in mid-speech. I paused, hand in mid-swing. The whole scene froze.

He came in at a particularly awkward time. I turned to the teacher, hand raised and about to slap Zexion. At the moment, I was standing right over him, and I almost fell on him as I lost my balance. Zexion, on the other hand, shyly turned to the teacher with the most innocent look on his face.

"Is...everything alright?" the teacher asked awkwardly.

Zexion nodded gently, and putting on the most angelic smile, he replied.

"Oh, everything's absolutely fine," he said with amusement, looking straight at me.

As the teacher gingerly left the room, I violently swore at him in my head. Violently. Very violently. I hope he got the message.

"That aside..." I continued, "you seriously think these tickets will sell for $100 each? Seriously?"

He grinned again, eager to explain his whole plan.

"Why do you buy something?" he asked.

"Because I want/need it," I answered, spitting out the first coherent thing that came to mind.

To my surprise, he nodded.

"In this case, there is no "need" involved. The people pay to come because they want to come. Therefore, we play on their wants," he said. "How many people do you think would kill to see where we live?"

Quite the number. True.

"How many people would kill to come to an event like this, right before exams? And they know it's going to be better than any of the ones in the past," he continued.

I nodded. Probably.

"How many people would kill for the potential opportunity to dance with either me or you?" he finished.

That last one's debatable, but I got his point.

"Alright, alright," I said.

"Then I'll task you with selling tickets," he ordered. "50 by the end of the day."

"50?" I gasped in disbelief, my head immediately turned towards the clock.

He did realize there were a total of 20 minutes before the last bell of the day rang, right? And he did realize that there were only a total of 1,000 students at our school, right? And he did realize that...

"To be honest, I'm actually expecting about 200 by the end of today, since you're going to be swarmed by about 50 people as soon as you leave this room," he said.

I scowled at him. He smiled devilishly, packing up his things and making for the door.

A group of students practically tackled him as he walked out, but he merely pointed to me.

"Ticket seller's over there," he said calmly, with a hint of anticipation in his sadistic voice.

He left the room unscathed, while I was tossed here and there trying to get all the eager beavers to calm down. The students pooled into the room so fast that you'd think they were all competing in the 50 m dash. A crowd quickly formed around me, quickly blocking any exit I could've possibly taken, and I let out a heavy sigh.

I looked down at the flyers again, and my immediate thought was: do we even need to put these up?

Of course not. He probably just felt like it. That idiot, I'm totally going to kill him later.

Though I'll have to give him credit. Between the afterschool swarm, my walk around the school to put up the posters, and my walk home, I'd sold approximately 200 tickets. Give or take a few.

200 tickets. I laughed. These people must be insane, paying $100 for a ticket. I bet you he was actually making a sizeable profit out of this. Moneygrubbing from the poor and unfortunate. Now that's just cruel.

When I got home, I saw Subaru at the door.

"Welcome home, young Miss," Subaru said, bowing.

I cracked.

"Okay, I have no idea what that idiot standing behind the door drilled into your head, but you are not a servant here. In any way whatsoever. Better yet, you are a fellow dorm mate. We will be going to the same school as of next year, and you just happen to be living here with us," I half-yelled.

"But-" Subaru started.

"You know what? I order you. I order you to be my friend, and not my butler. I order you to act casually around me and not wear that stupid suit when you don't have to," I shouted, somewhat annoyed.

To be honest, I didn't mean any harm whatsoever. Instead, I walked over to the chuckling figure behind the door and stared at him for a few seconds. On a whim, I lunged out and grabbed him, viciously slamming him against the wall. I did hold back a bit, though it must have been unbearably terrifying to watch for Subaru.

"Uh...Ino," he started slowly, addressing me by my first name for once.

"It's okay, he's fine. He's tougher than he looks," I responded coldly.

I healed what bones he may have broken, when he suddenly reached up and grabbed my hand.

"What was that for?" he complained with a smirk on his face.

He was clearly enjoying himself, even though he was being mercilessly beaten by me. Despite him being a Nobody, I sincerely hoped he felt the slightest bit of pain from that. I was enjoying myself too, so I didn't complain much.

"My long overdue revenge," I decided, releasing him.

I walked upstairs and went into my room. I opened my bag and sprawled my books and notes across the desk, finishing my homework quickly. Then, I went over to the bed, simply falling on it. I drifted off to sleep shortly after.

It'd been a long day.

* * *

"How long are you planning to do this without telling her?" Saix asked.

Saix had caught him just as he was leaving the room. Impeccable timing as always.

"As long as it takes," Zexion replied.

"And if she finds out?" Saix asked.

He took a moment and thought about it, but the answer was simple.

"She won't," he said. "That's the only reason I have for doing this."

And with that, he left.

Saix chuckled with anticipation.

"Naivete at its fullest. It's amazing really. The power of love. The power of hearts," Saix said, to no one in particular. "That's even more reason to hurry and complete Kingdom Hearts. With a heart, even I'll be able to..."

He shook his head, almost trying to laugh the thought off.

With one final look at the incomplete, yet undeniably magnificent heart which towered over the castle like a guardian, Saix walked out of the grey room, twirling an imaginary chess piece between his fingers.


	28. Ballroom Dancing

**A/N: I would like to sincerely apologize for not updating for so long. A lot of stuff has been going on and I couldn't really find the time to write. ****I may not update as frequently as I did in the past,** but I do have every intention of completing this story. To my readers, thanks for being patient with me. I hope you'll like this chapter.

Chapter 28 ~ Ballroom Dancing

"Stop this nonsense," Saix commanded.

"I'm doing both my load and her load of missions. You shouldn't have any complaints," Zexion retorted.

"If she's not doing anything, I suppose that makes her worthless to the organization," Saix said with a cold smile on his face.

There was a long pause.

"Well...I may be able to overlook this under one condition," Saix offered.

"What?" Zexion asked tentatively.

"I'd like to talk to her alone," Saix said.

Zexion flinched.

"I refuse," Zexion replied without even considering the offer.

"Do you really think you're in a position to refuse?" Saix asked.

"Nonetheless, I refuse," Zexion repeated.

"Well, let's put it this way then. If you refuse, we'll see Xion as a traitor to the Organization for failing to report back after her missions," Saix said. "Of course you realize what that means, don't you?"

"That's low," Zexion shot back.

"Like I care," Saix replied. "The Organization takes priority over everything else. I won't allow anyone to hinder our plans."

There wasn't really much he could do.

"...I understand," he replied, brimming with frustration at being defeated.

* * *

We were busy with preparations all afternoon; chartering limos for our guests, buying all the refreshments, decorating the hall – there was a lot of stuff that needed to be done for the party later tonight. Zexion was strangely silent for the most of the day, so I was surprised when he suddenly decided to talk.

"Saix wants to meet with you, just before the party," he said, barely audible.

"Okay...but what's with this all of a sudden?" I asked.

"I'm just relaying his message," he replied, instantly killing the conversation.

I looked at him weirdly and tried to probe his mind, but it was clear that he wasn't going to tell me anything. Although I sensed some strange things going on behind the scenes, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and continued working without asking him anything. Whatever happened, or was going to happen, I wanted to trust him.

"Thank you," he whispered.

What? Oh wait...

"Eavesdropping AGAIN?" I demanded.

He always managed to blow off my top like that.

_Sorry, but I'm still glad you think that way._

_**...Your welcome? I guess?**_

Little did I know that he was hiding many more secrets than I expected. Many more unpleasant secrets that I would have liked to remain oblivious to.

* * *

I got back just before the party started.

"You're late," Zexion said, scowling.

"Sorry, it took awhile," I said.

"What did Saix say?" he demanded.

I froze. I did expect him to ask, but not so soon, and not so bluntly either.

"Nothing much," I said calmly. "Well, he scolded me for not reporting back by myself, and he also told me that I would be partnering with Lexaeus for my next mission," I said.

"That's it?" he asked.

"That's it," I lied.

He stared at me and raised his eyebrows.

He sighed heavily. "If you don't want to say it, then I'm not going to force you to, but just know that I'll always listen if you need it."

"That's awfully nice of you," I said.

"Remember that today's a party. Don't maul over things too much. Have fun, okay?" Zexion said.

I knew he was trying to be considerate, but somehow his weak attempt simply made me laugh.

"I haven't fallen so low as to have you worry about me," I retorted.

"Good to know," he said, chuckling.

He snapped his fingers.

"Kanon," he called.

"Yes Master," Kanon replied from the shadows.

Zexion simply shot a glance in my direction.

"Understood," Kanon said, bowing politely.

"Now I have to get ready to go greet the guests," Zexion said. "Come down once you're done preparing. Kanon will help you."

I nodded.

"I'll see you in a bit then," I said as he left my room and shut the door behind him.

Now then, what to wear? I looked through my wardrobe, and that's when I realized that I didn't have anything remotely suitable for a ballroom dance party. I think that the best thing I could come up with was a blouse and a skirt, but that wouldn't do. Not tonight.

"Excuse me, Master," Kanon interjected.

"What?" I asked as I impatiently rummaged through all of my clothes.

"How would this be?" Kanon asked, holding up a dress.

It was richly coloured in several layers of a beautiful purple. For the most part, the top was quite ordinarily defined, with a single strap on the right side and a natural waist seam, but the lower half - I hadn't seen anything quite like it before: it was short on the right side, yet the dress saw a gradual increase in length as I looked towards the left; behind, the wavy fabric cascaded all the way down to the floor.

It was strangely enchanting.

I walked over and lifted it out of his hands.

"Where did you get this from?" I asked, curious.

Kanon pointed at a box on my bed that I hadn't noticed.

"The Master had this custom-made for you," Kanon said with a hint of jealousy.

I'm rather disgusted at how little it bothered me that he knew my exact size.

"Don't look," I said as I began changing.

When I was all done, I twirled around once and watched the dress as it rose and fell gently around me.

"And don't forget this," he said as he tied a purple rose choker around my neck.

It felt a bit uncomfortable, but I didn't have time to argue with him. I had to go greet the guests.

"Thanks Kanon," I said, giving him a polite curtsy.

In response, he pulled out a pair of open-toed stilettos with a single strap just above the ankle. I simply stared.

"Come on, this isn't funny...he wants me to dance for the whole night, in THAT?" I asked Kanon in disbelief.

"That is the Master's wish," Kanon said without being the slightest bit fazed.

That guy is a sadist, a sadist I tell you. I groaned as Kanon helped me into the shoes. It's not like I had any other appropriate shoes to wear anyways.

As I headed for the door, Kanon stepped in front of me.

"Pardon me, but we're not finished yet," Kanon said without any change in face expression. "I still have to do your hair and makeup."

"What?" I asked in disbelief.

You see, I never really got into that stuff.

"My apologies, but the Master has strictly ordered me not to allow you to leave this room before you have finished preparing," Kanon said.

I took another step towards the door, but he didn't seem inclined to move.

"Alright, alright! Make it quick," I snorted.

That idiot. I would be sure to pound him later.

Kanon beckoned me to sit down on the chair in front of the vanity. He proceeded to paint my toenails a gorgeous violet which matched my dress. When he was done, I extended my hand, and he moved onto my fingernails.

I really didn't know what to make of this. It was an awkward sensation – having a Nobody and a male at that, helping me do my nails.

Later, he applied some light make-up to my face, and finished up by styling my hair with a bun towards the right side.

"Oh, and we can't forget these," he said.

He revealed a pair of pearl stud earrings before putting them on for me.

"There, all done," he said.

He motioned towards the mirror. To be honest, I could barely recognize the girl that looked back at me. Strangely enough, my only thought was: "I hope he likes it."

I made sure to check that there was no one in the grand hall before using Marluxia's abilities to teleport there. Since the switch was reset for the guests tonight, I didn't really have a choice. I decided to use Marluxia's abilities through the night to prevent me from looking like a waddling penguin (he is supposed to be the graceful assassin).

And then I heard his voice.

"Subaru, that's fine. You can stop greeting the guests and join the party," he said.

"Yes sir," Subaru replied.

I watched as he climbed the stairs in quick strides and entered the ballroom. Then my sight shifted to Zexion.

He was wearing a black tuxedo, with an artificial purple rose over his heart - or rather, where his heart would have been if he had one. I understood now why he had enforced the rose choker. I am slightly disappointed, because I half-expected him to dress in a white tuxedo. Instead, he wore a very plain suit, yet it was nonetheless dashing.

He turned around and met my gaze.

I stood at the top of the stairs uncomfortably, waiting for him to come up. His eyes never left me as he ascended the staircase in swift and graceful movements.

"W-W-What?" I asked, slightly flustered as he reached the landing.

"As I expected, purple looks great on you," Zexion commented, "but actually..."

"What?" I demanded.

"I think you look better normally," he stated bluntly.

Of course I was mad.

"Don't impose all this on someone and then criticize them!" I retorted angrily.

He simply chuckled.

"Nevertheless...I wanted to see you all dressed up like this, just once," he said quietly.

I'm glad he turned around to open the doors, because my cheeks went red almost instantly.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the annual event hosted by the student council. As you already know, this is the ballroom, which will strictly be used for dancing. If you should ever find yourself tired, please don't hesitate to proceed downstairs for some light refreshments," Zexion announced.

He gestured at the floor, which was a transparent glass. I could see the multipurpose room below, with Kanon standing in the bar, busy preparing drinks. I have no idea how he got from my room to the multipurpose room, but that's the least of my concerns right now.

_**It's transparent you know!**_

_Don't worry, it's transparent from the top and translucent from the bottom. It's even a bit reflective, so the most anyone would see from down there would be blurry lights._

He continued. "There is also a large guest bathroom at the end of the room, should the need arise. You're free to go wherever you want and do whatever you want. All I ask is that you please return here at 11:30 for the final event of the night. Above all else, don't forget to enjoy yourselves. Let the ball begin!"

As soon as the applause died down, the first song began to play. No sooner did it start was I asked to dance.

"Ino, may I have a dance?" a guy asked.

I wanted to refuse because I didn't even recognize him, but I glanced back at Zexion and saw that he seemed to be busy talking with some other girls. The weird thing was, he was smiling. There were a few exceptions, but he usually never bothered talking to the other girls at school. He must've been in a really good mood. I didn't really want to disturb him, so I accepted the stranger's offer.

"Sure," I responded, forcing a smile.

Immediately, I felt a glare come from his direction, but when I looked back, he was dancing with another girl too. I kept staring at them while I was dancing, so I didn't notice when I was accidentally stepping on my partner's feet.

"Oh sorry," I said, not feeling very sorry at all.

Feeling more enraged by the second, I went through as many guys as there were songs, slowly making my way to the balcony on the other side of the room. I really needed a breath of fresh air, because all this dancing was surprisingly exhausting. I don't know how it happened, but I found myself face-to-face with Zexion at the balcony.

"How has your night been?" he asked nonchalantly.

"I can't even catch a break. The guys are lining up one after another," I responded coolly.

"I've had quite the number of requests from girls too," he replied.

I rolled my eyes at him, but he simply responded with a chuckle.

"This is quite problematic isn't it?" he said. "It's already time for the final event and I haven't had a single dance with you yet."

"And who's fault is that?" I asked accusingly.

"Not mine, I'd hope," he answered with a mischievous tone. "Well, I'm going to go announce the final event."

And with that, he left me alone on the balcony. I slumped onto the railing, a bit disappointed. I was going to sit the final event out as well, but after a short while, it got cold, so I decided to head back in too.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the final event for the night will be a masquerade. Masks are being distributed through the audience at the moment, and I ask that you please put them on. Now, I would like all the girls to move to the right side of the room and the boys to move to the left. In a minute, we will dim the lights and ask the males to proceed to the other side of the room and find a partner. We will begin the final dance shortly after," he declared.

I was going to sit this event out, but someone handed me a mask anyways and shoved me to the right side of the room.

"And now, let's begin," Zexion said, voice booming across the dimly lit room.

A lot of the girls rushed forward immediately, but I simply stood there, waiting for whoever to find me.

All of a sudden, I felt a warm hand grab my hand and pull me towards the center. Even in the darkness and with a mask on, I knew who it was immediately.

_Sorry I'm late. I had to help Subaru find Nina, which was extremely difficult because that man has a horrible sense of direction._

I laughed.

_**Better late than never.**_

The lights slowly came back on, and the music for the last dance started.

"My favourite waltz," Zexion said as he pulled me closer to him.

One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. Dancing felt effortless even in these stilettos when he was guiding me on the dance floor. I think I may have spoken too early, because my carelessness made me trip and fall backwards.

"Woah-"

Zexion managed to catch me and pull me back up on my feet in one swift, successive motion that looked quite natural – almost as if the fall didn't happen at all. I saw his sly smile under his mask, and I couldn't help but break into a smile too. Unfortunately, the good things never last long. They went almost as soon as they came; before I knew it, the song was already over.

"Now, take off your masks. Gentlemen, give the ladies a friendly kiss on the hand," Zexion said, as he reached for his own mask.

I took my own mask off without too much effort, and I held it in one hand while I reached out my other hand. He knelt down, and reached for my hand, slowly bringing it towards his lips.

All of a sudden, he tossed his mask, knocked my arm aside, and leapt straight at me from his kneeling position, startling me and causing me to drop my mask. Zexion held me a tight embrace, and while I was still frozen and completely unaware of what was going on, he brought his own lips against mine.

When I overcame the initial shock, I quickly pushed him away.

_**Isn't it embarrassing? Everyone's watching.**_

_Embarrassing? Look around._

I saw some of the guys were rather reluctant to kiss their partner's hands, which made them rather upset; however, several of the boys, who actually found they girlfriends, were following our example.

_See, there shouldn't be any problem._

Once again, he wrapped his arms firmly around my waist and looked at me, his face only an inch away from mine.

_Never let go of my hand again. Who was the person who said that to me?_

I finally smiled, thinking back to the incident in the school hallway. Slowly, I brought my arms around him, and our lips locked in a passionate kiss. I could feel some of the stares from around the room, but I didn't care. It was a perfect moment, and I wasn't going to let anyone ruin it.

Soon after, the guests left one by one, and we were the only ones left in the mansion. As Kanon worked to clean up after the party, we watched the stars together on the balcony, but everytime I looked over at him, he appeared to be lost in his thoughts. I gently put my hand on top of his, at which he looked at me with a start.

"It'd be nice if we could stay like this forever," I said.

"Yeah..." he agreed.

Even though the stars were shining particularly brightly that night, his face looked gravely pale in the moonlight.


	29. In Spite of Everything

Chapter 29 ~ In Spite of Everything

_**Hey. Do you want to go somewhere today?**_

_What's this, all of a sudden..._

_**I don't know. I just felt like it.**_

_You're incomprehensible._

_**And you aren't?**_

He gave a long sigh.

_Well, I can't today._

_**Why?**_

_There's an important meeting going on at the company._

_**Is that so...**_

Did I forget to mention that this guy started his own company simply because he was bored and wanted to play a game. (I would rather think he wanted to make some legitimate money.) In a couple of months, his company went from a meager start-up company to the leading firm in the financial services industry. I repeat: a couple of months. I know that's not physically possible, but it is HIM we're talking about here.

Hearing the disappointment in my voice, he tried to compromise.

_How about tomorrow?_

_**I have a mission with Lexaeus tomorrow, remember?**_

_Was that tomorrow?_

_**Did you forget?**_

_Sorry, I've got a lot on my mind recently._

_**Me too...**_

It was the last couple of days of school before exams and we were sitting in ethics class as usual, except our teacher decided to shuffle our seats around for a change of pace, or so he said. I'm sure he just wanted to spread out his best students around the classroom for the teaching evaluation. In any case, Zexion somehow ended up in a corner seat in the back row and I was in the opposite end of the room, in the front. We couldn't really afford to carry out a physical conversation in these conditions, so I wasn't able to see his face expression or anything, but he sounded almost...depressed.

I shook off the thought. As if a Nobody could be depressed, right?

_So why the sudden request?_

_**I told you already. I just...felt like it.**_

_Are you sure you don't need to tell me something?_

_**What makes you think that?**_

_All of the clues point toward it, but I could still be wrong._

Sometimes, he could be so annoying, what with his deductive reasoning and his arrogant attitude.

_**I thought you said you weren't going to pry.**_

He stopped pressing me at this, but I could still feel his suspicious gaze fixed on my back. It was quite uncomfortable, mind you, so I was glad when the teacher called on him to answer a question, thus interrupting his one-sided staring contest.

The teacher beamed at him for giving yet another flawless answer in front of the person who was going around to classes and evaluating the teachers. I think he was supposed to be the vice-principal or something. I turned around quickly to see him jot down notes, looking rather impressed. He had no reason not to be.

My gaze then shifted to Zexion who was sitting in the corner, pretending to be reading through the textbook.

"Ino, what do you think?" the teacher asked suddenly.

I turned around with a start. I don't understand why the teacher called on me when I wasn't paying attention. Was he trying to get a failing grade on his evaluation?

"Um..." I started, not too sure what to respond with.

_Do unto others as you would have them do unto you._

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," I repeated.

"Good answer," the teacher admitted.

_**Thanks.**_

_Pay attention yourself next time._

Thankfully, the rest of the class went by without incident. After class was over, we decided to walk home together for the first time in a long while. It was about a half an hour walk, but neither of us complained. We even took a detour to drop Nina by her apartment.

"Thanks," she said as she walked in the front door and disappeared out of our sights.

After Nina was gone, neither of us said a word: me because I didn't know what to say and him because...well, I wouldn't know.

"I might be able to finish early today," he said all of a sudden. "I'll see. Maybe we can go somewhere tonight. Where do you want to go? France? Italy? Antarctica?"

I cracked up at that.

"What, and go ice fishing? That's not romantic at all," I said, restraining my laughter.

"Is it supposed to be romantic?" he asked sarcastically.

I just laughed it off.

"Somewhere local is fine," I responded.

"All right then, you make the reservations," he agreed.

As soon as we got home, he changed into a suit and tie and went straight to work.

On the other hand, I did some studying like a good girl. When it was almost five, I figured I should make the reservations, so I pulled out my laptop and looked up the phone number of that 100-story newly constructed hotel which supposedly had an excellent restaurant on its top floor. I checked out some images and a couple of reviews too. It all looked pretty good, to the eye at least, so I called them up.

"Hello, this is Josie's Diner. How may I help you?" a waitress asked over the phone.

"Hi, I'd like to make a reservation for two please," I said.

"What time?" she asked.

"Um..." I started.

Good question. I didn't know exactly when he would be coming back. Better make a generous estimate.

"Make that 7:30 please," I responded. "Oh, and do you have any window seats?"

"I'm sorry, but all our window seats are booked for tonight, I do have a good spot close to the window though," she said. "Would that be all right?"

I guess I'm going to have to settle for that.

"Yes, that'd be fine," I replied.

"Could I get your name please?" she asked.

I thought about it for a moment.

"Rion. Rion Schneider," I said.

"Okay then, that's all set. 7:30 at Josie's Diner for two," she confirmed. "I look forward to seeing you."

"Thanks," I said before I hung up.

Now, to get changed. I couldn't very well waltz into an upscale restaurant in a sweater and jeans, could I?

I made my way to my room and ransacked the wardrobe again, trying to find something suitable for the night.

"Master, do you need any help?" Kanon asked from behind, startling me.

"No, I'm fine," I said.

I already had a rather nightmarish experience with Kanon helping me get ready for the previous event. I didn't need to go through that a second time.

"And ask for people's permission before entering their rooms!" I shouted.

"My apologies Master, I'll remember that next time," he said.

And with that, he was gone as quickly as he had come.

I managed to find myself a nice, plain, white dress and a belt going through the center. I couldn't find any really nice dress shoes, so I decided to make do with flats. As a finishing touch, I found a nice headband that I forgot I even had.

There, I thought to myself as I looked into the mirror. Simple and clean.

I exited my room and stared across the hallway to his study. Closed as usual, and also giving off a "you shouldn't come in here" vibe as usual.

I ignored the strange sensation and simply made my way to the bottom of the staircase, sitting on one of the lowest steps. I looked up at the gigantic clock over the main entrance. It was 7:00 already.

It would take us half an hour to get there by limo, which means that we would be late even if he were to get back right now. I thought about calling the restaurant to postpone the reservation, but I was too lazy to. Well, there's that, but I also had a feeling that he would be even later than I expected.

By 7:30, my stomach was rumbling gently. I'm accustomed to eating dinner early, you see. I usually go for meals at 6, and never later than 7. The clock ticked louder with each passing second, as if it was mocking me. By 8:00, my stomach was growling.

I nearly fell asleep until I heard a familiar chuckle. When I looked up at the clock, it was nearly 9:00.

"You look like you've been sitting there for hours," he said.

I got up with a start, brushing the dust off my dress.

"Not really, just a couple of minutes," I responded coolly.

"Actually, she's been there from 7:00," Kanon's voice sounded from behind me.

That butler's personality kind of reminds me of Zexion. In a bad way.

Zexion frowned at me.

"It must've been uncomfortable, sitting there for that long," he said. "Well, let's just go."

I walked to the door and we proceeded down the steps together. At the limo, Kanon escorted Zexion inside first, followed by me. I made sure to shoot him my "I'll kill you later" glare as I walked past him. I don't think he paid me any attention though. Either that, or he just didn't care.

"Where are we headed?" Subaru asked as he took the driver's seat.

"That new hotel," I responded. "I think it was called the Empress?"

"Josie's Diner?" Zexion asked me.

I nodded.

As we were riding in the car, Zexion pulled out a book from his briefcase and started to flip through its contents.

"Could you have been any later?" I asked. "I made the reservation for 7:30 you know."

"Is that so?" he said without looking up. "Well, we'll just work it out when we get there."

I slouched back in my seat, annoyed at his indifference.

I made a pretty accurate estimate in that it would take us about 30 minutes by limo to get to the restaurant. It was 9:30 when we got there, and it crossed my mind that they may have closed already. Bright lights at the top of the tower told me otherwise.

_**Who eats dinner at this time?**_

_We do._

Even though I accurately estimated the time it took to get to the hotel, I forgot about the 5 minute elevator ride to the 100th floor. It lasted forever though.

The elevator finally opened, and a waitress greeted us as soon as we stepped off. I'm pretty sure she was the one I spoke with on the phone.

"Welcome to Josie's Diner," she said. "Do you have a reservation?"

"Yes," I answered. "For two."

"Name?" she inquired as she went over to her list.

"Rion. Rion Schneider," I said.

She scrolled down her list, looking at the reservations, until she finally found it.

"It was for 7:30, right?" she asked.

"Yes, but-"

"I'm sorry, but we already gave your spot to somebody else," she responded. "We only hold reservations for 10 minutes, unless the customer calls to notify us of some delay."

"I-"

Zexion brushed me aside as he passed me.

"Do you have a seat for two right now?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, but all the seats are currently taken," she responded.

There's no way. It's 9:30! I wouldn't be surprised if there was hardly anyone left.

"I find that highly improbable," Zexion retorted.

Actually, he knows it, but he can't prove it without any actual evidence.

"I'm sorry sir, but there are no seats at the moment, and besides, we close at 11:00, so I'm afraid you wouldn't have time to enjoy your meal," she defended.

"There is a seat," Zexion insisted.

At that moment, an older couple exited the restaurant, and the waitress greeted them.

"There's a seat now, isn't there?" he asked, smirking.

"My apologies good sir, but it's a store policy. In order for us to ensure that we provide the best service to all our customers, we don't admit customers after 9:00," a voice came from the side.

"Oh. And who might you be?" Zexion asked.

"I'm the manager," the man said.

I could tell that he wasn't lying.

"It's fine. Let's go," I whispered, as I gently nudged his arm.

He flicked me aside.

"That's a severely flawed policy, in more ways than one," Zexion said coldly.

"I'm not one to question the decisions of the executives," the manager responded, equally coldly.

"And if I change that policy?" Zexion asked, enjoying the drama.

"Who are you to say such a thing?" the manager asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Ask her," he said, pointing at the waitress while he got out his cellphone and pretended to make a phone call.

I watched as the waitress pointed to a name on the reservation list, and the manager's eyes opened wide in horror.

"You're Rion Schneider?" the manager asked in disbelief.

"Do you have a problem with that?" Zexion asked, clearly amused. "I can show you I.D."

"But you're just a kid!" the manager countered. "You're the President and CEO of that Schneider Group?"

"Of course. That reminds me, I was thinking about expanding into the hospitality sector sometime soon, so we decided to buy an upscale hotel chain just recently," he said. "Of course, the deal hasn't been made public yet, but it's quite set in stone."

"Which hotel chain?" the manager asked.

"Why...the Empress of course," he said, "which would make me your boss, wouldn't it?"

Zexion merely stared at him with expectant eyes.

"I just struck a huge deal with a client overseas today," he said with a rather creepy smile. "I'm in what you would call a good mood right now. Please don't ruin it."

It amuses me that I couldn't tell if the lady was charmed by him or frightened to death. She looked at her manager, who gave a curt nod. It was more like he jerked his head, but I'm not one to complain.

"R-Right this way please," she said, motioning for us to follow her into the restaurant.

The restaurant was still quite lively, contrary to my expectations, but there were quite a few empty seats. She showed us to a table, and it was a window seat to boot.

_I told you I would take care of it._

_**You're a devil.**_

_Thank you for the compliment._

_**I think you took the bluff a bit far, with the acquisition and all.**_

_I wasn't bluffing._

_**What?**_

_We're finalizing the deal now. It's going to be made public soon._

_**Hey, I didn't know your business was expanding so fast.**_

_You're forgetting who's running it._

I felt a bit unsettled while I was eating because of that earlier skirmish with the manager, but my stomach overpowered my brain and I gobbled down everything in sight anyways.

"This is scrumptious," I exclaimed.

"Is it now?" he asked.

"You don't think so?" I questioned.

"Hm...I don't really know, is this what you call tasty?" he asked again.

"You're joking, right?"

He looked at me, dead serious. This would be one of those facepalm moments.

"Well at least, I think it tastes really good," I replied.

We were halfway through the main course when Zexion made the weirdest comment.

"You seem to be lost in thought," he started cautiously.

I sighed.

"It's just, I was reflecting on how lucky I am to be able to eat dinner with you right now," I said, gazing at the magnificent city scenery through the window.

He raised his eyebrows as I turned around and met his eyes.

"Nothing! Forget I said anything," I said hastily. "Let's go for dessert too."

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as I felt him staring at me, without a break, for the rest of the meal.

After we were done, Zexion paid them a generous tip for their efforts, and we left the restaurant. I suggested taking a stroll through the nearby park, so we did. I got thirsty from walking really quickly, so we bought some soft drinks at the vending machine and sat on the park bench, taking in the beautiful lake in front of us, the beautiful trees around us, and the beautiful stars above us.

I'm not sure why, but I felt exhausted. I nearly fell over into his lap, but thankfully, I caught myself before I did. Instead, he shifted closer to me, allowing me to lean my head against his shoulder. It was soft.

"I saw a couple do this in a movie once, so I thought I would try it," he said. "I seem to have garnered a good response."

That last line was completely unnecessary. Seeing as how I refused to comment, he continued.

"Tired already?" he asked. "The night's still young."

I simply glared at him.

"Let's keep this PG-13 now," I warned.

Well, even though I say that... He may make rude remarks from time to time, and he's almost always incredibly annoying, but whatever happens, how I feel about him probably won't change.

He coughed, interrupting my train of thought.

"What?" I asked.

"Thinking too loudly," he said.

I can't remember what happened after that, but I'm pretty sure I smacked him.

* * *

"What did you tell her?" Zexion demanded.

"Nothing you need to know," Saix responded coolly.

"She hasn't been acting the same ever since she got back from her little 'talk' with you," Zexion retorted.

Saix sighed, turning around to face the unwelcome visitor in his room.

"And what of it?" Saix asked.

Zexion found himself at a loss for words. He asked a good question. He had no evidence that whatever Saix told her was the direct cause of her change in behaviour, but he had an ominous feeling about the whole situation which nagged at him constantly and refused to leave him alone. He almost lost it.

"Stop screwing with me," Zexion said in an abnormally low tone, banging his fist against the wall.

"My, my. It's been a while since I've heard you use such foul language," Saix said, clearly amused.

Zexion looked to the side, trying to avoid Saix' piercing gaze.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Saix taunted.

That was it. Even though he had plenty he still wanted to ask Saix, he left the room in a fit of frustration, slamming the door behind him.

Back in the room, Saix turned around, staring at the moon intently.

"This is turning out even better than I thought," Saix thought to himself quietly.


	30. Betrayal

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait folks! I am going to apologize beforehand about the quality. Since it's been awhile since I updated, I had to re-read the whole story to remember what was going on, so this isn't my best chapter. But I hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless because a lot happens! Too much maybe…**

* * *

Chapter 30 ~ Betrayal

It was another boring Friday afternoon in my ethics and philosophy class, and our teacher was droning on and on about the discoveries of some other dead old guy. I couldn't be bothered to pay attention and I didn't have to be a mind-reader to know that nobody else could either.

While my teacher was looking at the other side of the classroom, I chanced a glance outside. It was a peaceful day – birds chirping, trees branches fluttering in the wind, sun raining down gently, but almost…too peaceful; I couldn't help but feel it was like the calm before the storm.

A voice in my head interrupted my thoughts.

_Are you heading back after school?_

**_Yeah…I have a mission. How about you?_**

_I have some things at the company to take care of. Then I'll head back._

**_Oh...o-okay._**

_Is something wrong?_

**_Is that the only question you'll ever ask me?_**

_Well, you looked troubled…_

**_Well, I'm fine._**

_Is that the only answer you'll ever give me?_

I groaned. I have to admit, I was a bit annoyed with his witty humour sometimes.

Zexion eyed me suspiciously from his seat near the back of the classroom, but by now, he knew better than to pry.

_Well, whatever happens, don't overdo it._

**_Y-yeah. I know._**

The bell promptly rang, saving me from having to pretend to listen to more of our teacher's incomprehensible ramblings.

As I was packing up my things, I looked over to Zexion. Our eyes locked only for an instant, though it almost felt like an eternity – as if both of us were suspended in time. Instead of experiencing pleasure in that perpetual moment where his eyes never left mine, for some reason, dread washed over me – something bad was going to happen; apprehension was written all over his face as well. Zexion showed one last look of concern before breaking our eye contact, turning tail and leaving.

_Take care of yourself._

**_Same to you._**

I kept waving goodbye, even after he was gone; it was only when people started eyeing me weirdly that I caught my hand and awkwardly shoved it into my pocket.

* * *

Right after school, I hurried home and had Kanon prepare a light afternoon snack for me before my mission. Despite having been prepared by a world-class chef, the cookies tasted just plain salty in my mouth.

Each one felt saltier than the previous, until my senses became numb and I couldn't taste the cookies entirely.

What was this strange sense of foreboding I had?

I shook my head. I was probably overthinking things. After all, I had a mission to do today, and I couldn't afford to distract myself by letting my mind wander.

As I was finishing the last cookie, I got up to leave.

By now, I was sufficiently comfortable with phasing and shifting that I could teleport to another world – still with great difficulty however. I couldn't create those corridors of darkness that the other members of the Organization used for some reason, so I had to rely on my other abilities. Xigbar's control of space only allowed me to travel to different areas within the same world, so I had to make use of Marluxia's abilities to travel between worlds. By turning my physical body into flower petals, and then making them ethereal, I was able to penetrate the barriers of the worlds, although it puts a great strain on my body. To me, it felt like a short flying sensation, though in reality, the petals sometimes travelled long distances through the barriers of the world to reach their destinations. The uninformed spectator would've called it teleportation, when in reality, I was simply moving at an extremely fast speed without a physical body – so yes, indeed it looked like teleportation.

Anyways, I was able to warp myself over to Twilight Town with the aid of Marluxia's abilities in one piece, but it was extremely taxing on me.

I looked around trying to get a sense of where I was. It's extremely disorienting to be in one place one second and another place the next. "Teleporting" within one world was one thing, but "teleporting" between worlds was something else entirely.

Lexaeus wasn't here yet, so I wandered around Station Heights, waiting for him to arrive.

A bright light shining ahead caught my eye, so I followed it up the hill and slowly made my way to the station. As I dawned on the clearing at the top of the hill, a streak of light from the sun nearly blinded me. I squinted, trying to catch a glimpse of the sun. My eyes opened wider as I gradually adjusted to the brightness.

The view of the sunset from the station entrance was truly beautiful – a sky tainted with a shade of red and orange, birds flapping in the distance, and trains running silently on the tracks below. I basked in the comfortable sunlight, arms spread wide, indulging in the tranquility of the scenery. It would've been perfect, if Zexion were here.

My brief moment of reprise was cut short, when all of a sudden, in that almost eerily serene environment, I felt a great disturbance right behind me – a hostile presence.

* * *

Something was wrong. He wasn't quite sure what, but while his hand was signing important documents to finalize the acquisition of a major company in the hospitality and tourism industry, his mind continually drifted elsewhere.

"Mr. Schneider," his secretary called. "Mr. Schneider."

"What? Oh- sorry, I must've drifted off," Zexion replied.

"This isn't like you," she noted.

"Yeah, I know. My apologies," Zexion said. "Brenda, please look through these documents once again. We can't afford to have any mistakes."

In his head, he already knew there were no mistakes, but decided that he should probably give his otherwise free secretary something to do anyways.

He rapidly flipped through the remaining stack of papers on his desk with Brenda watching in awe as his pupils flew left to right, up and down.

After a few long minutes, he slammed the stack back onto his desk. He rose from the table.

"Okay, I've proofed all those reports," he said.

"Already sir?" Brenda asked in disbelief.

Her eyes followed him like a hawk as he made for the door.

"Change the wording on page 36. There's a clause that could be easily misunderstood by our clients and we can't have that," Zexion said as took off his blazer and loosened his tie. "And on page 98, check the numbers again. They're not the same as I recall. Please see to it."

"Mr. Schneider-" his secretary started.

"That should be all," he said, looking at his watch with great urgency. "Sorry, but there's something I have to do. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Mr.-"

But he was already out the door.

* * *

I sensed a great force coming at my left side, so I instinctively lifted my arm to defend. A piercing pain in my left arm only seconds later told me that I forgot to instinctively phase – when pitting a normal human against a giant weapon, chances are, the weapon would reign supreme. My head throbbed violently as I was thrown against the wall: the pain was excruciating, yet for some reason, I couldn't quite bring myself to scream.

I mustered up the strength to lift my head and look in the direction of my attacker. I had a pretty good idea of who it was just based on the feel of the weapon, but I wanted to be sure nonetheless. A rather large hooded man in a black cloak with a giant tomahawk in his one hand slowly walked towards me. Despite the fact that I couldn't see his face, I knew that build all too well; it was Lexaeus, one of Zexion's better friends and someone who I once called a comrade as well.

Comrade – whatever that meant.

Having just received a devastating blow to my head, courtesy of the wall I was smashed against, I couldn't really think straight, let alone understand the situation I was in.

As my head tilted to the right, I saw three blurred figures speed up the Station Heights hill and run into Central Station.

"Is that…?" Sora started.

"Hey! It's that girl we saw last time!" Goofy interjected. "At Hollow Bastion!"

"What was her name again…? Uh…Ino, right?" Sora clarified. "Wait…that other guy's from Organization XIII! What are they doing here?"

"Who cares about that? We have to help her!" Donald screeched.

The trio quickly ran over to my position, and saw me in tatters, having sustained a crushing blow to my arm, and several others to my back and my head. I was in no condition to heal myself, since I used the majority of my strength just to get to Twilight Town.

"Sora…" I whispered, my eyes blurry.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked as he approached me.

"Y-yeah."

"Gawrsh, she looks pretty beaten up," Goofy said, observing my injuries.

Sora turned to Lexaeus and brandished his keyblade.

"Since when did the Organization become a big group of bullies?" Sora asked. "She's innocent!"

"She's not innocent," Lexaeus replied, pulling back his hood. "For the good of the Organization, she has to be eliminated.

"Not on our watch," Donald said as they got into defensive positions.

A great battle ensued between the rambunctious trio and the silent hero.

Sora made the first move, leaping forward and taking a swipe at Lexaeus, who brushed aside the attack like it was nothing and leapt forward to counter.

"SORA!" Goofy warned.

Sora doubled back to gain some distance, but Lexaeus was onto him like a wolf stalking his prey. Just as his tomahawk was descending on Sora, a well-aimed shield thrown by Goofy hit Lexaeus square in the chest, which – although didn't do much damage – sent him flying backwards and gave Sora's party much needed time to regroup.

But Lexaeus wouldn't give them any time to rest, immediately rushing forward, swinging his great weapon. While Goofy fended off his attack with his shield, Donald retreated to the side.

"Donald, use magic!" Sora cried.

Magic was very effective on Lexaeus, mostly because he was a slower, high-durability, close-range fighter more than anything, so you could definitely attack with more comfort from a distance.

He was hit by a chain of blizzard magic, followed by another chain of thunder magic, before he was able to make sense of the attack. Turning to his attacker, he leapt back and appeared to be re-evaluating the situation.

Even if he was a big brute, he wasn't stupid. He knew that in a battle like this – 3 against 1 – where he had the bigger weapon (which slowed him down significantly), he would stand little chance.

"We'll have to settle this next time," Lexaeus stated, recovering from his battle stance.

His eyes floated past Sora, Donald, and Goofy and found mine. He gave me one last menacing stare.

"Hey! Are you going to run away?" Sora taunted.

With that, he swung his tomahawk against the ground, creating a massive crack in the tiles. I watched as Donald was thrown off his feet from the impact. Taking advantage of the distraction, he summoned three Barbarian Nobodies (under his direct command) with a snap of his fingers, and disappeared into a wisp of black smoke.

"Aw! He disappeared," Donald complained.

"Come on, let's take care of these guys!" Goofy yelled.

One of the Nobodies threw his axe in Sora's direction, who quickly did an aerial dodge to avoid it. He landed beside the Barbarian and thrust him into the air, unleashing a devastating finish on the Barbarian when it was still airborne. He took great advantage of the Nobody's slow movements, limited range, and affinity to the ground. As a fellow fighter, I'd have to score him pretty high.

Goofy took the Barbarian on his right, catching it in a shield tornado, while Donald cast powerful magic to dispatch the other one. As I expected, they were able to defeat the several Barbarian Nobodies without great difficulty.

Once they made sure the area was clear, they rushed over to me.

"What happened?" Sora asked. "Are you okay?"

I winced. How on earth would I explain this? I couldn't exactly tell them that I was a member of the Organization which they had sworn to defeat…

"I-I was kidnapped by the Organization-" I started.

"You were kidnapped by the Organization?" the trio repeated in disbelief.

"…Y-yeah…"

I couldn't think of a better way to justify my appearance at Hollow Bastion and at Twilight Town.

"Gawrsh, but why would they kidnap a normal person like you?" Goofy asked.

"I don't know," I replied innocently.

"Maybe she's…one of the seven princesses?" Sora theorized.

Uh...I think...not.

"Sora, we just saved the seven princesses, and she's not one of them," Donald said.

I groaned. So, remind me how did I get stuck with these three dimwits? But frankly, I'm not in a situation where I can pick my saviours.

"Hm…" Goofy joined in. "Maybe…"

"Thanks," I mouthed, interrupting their conversation.

"No problem," Sora said, "but you're hurt pretty badly."

"Y-yeah…I know…"

The world spun, round and round. In the distance, I could see the faces of Sora, Donald, and Goofy looking down at me.

"Ino!" Sora called faintly.

The world around me distorted and became completely blown out of proportion. I suspect he was shaking me, trying to garner some kind of positive response – it seemed to have the opposite effect.

"We have to get her to a safe spot," Donald said.

Everything started to lose its colour simultaneously; one by one, their faces grew darker, and even darker still, until everything was black – no, darker than black.

* * *

"No…way…" Zexion started.

"It's true. Every bit of it. Ask Lexaeus if you're still in doubt," Saix shot back coldly.

"That's impossible…" Zexion continued. He wasn't talking to anyone in particular, nor was he really paying attention to Saix' words.

Saix approached him slowly and violently shook his shoulder.

"Look at me," Saix commanded. "Look at me!"

Zexion turned his head upwards at the voice, wide eyes glassy in disbelief.

"She betrayed the Organization. She ran off with the wielder of the Keyblade," Saix explained. "Her recovery is of the highest priority right now. She knows too much. We can't let her run wild like this. I've given orders to all the members to bring her back…dead or alive."

Zexion stared at him, dumbfounded. It took a while before he was able to gather his thoughts.

"No wait…hold on! There must be some kind of mistake-" Zexion started.

Saix glared at him fiercely.

"It's time for you to determine where your loyalties lie. Are you a member of the Organization, or are you going to play at being the lover of a traitor?" Saix retorted.

"What? No, that's not... She must've been tricked. Sora must've-"

But Saix wouldn't even let him get a word in edgeways.

"You're a Nobody, Zexion," Saix continued. "You can't feel. You can't love. Don't ever delude yourself into believing any different."

And with that, he stormed away, leaving Zexion alone and very much lost in thought.

He was stunned. Not by the news of her desertion in particular (he didn't really care about that), but rather, by how she just tossed aside the time they'd spent together like it was nothing.

"You promised. I promised. How could you…?"

What was this strange emptiness he felt? Was it sadness? Anger? Frustration? Try as he may, he couldn't tell the difference.

* * *

**A/N: There's going to be a lot of inter-world travelling in the next few chapters, so if you have any requests for worlds that were not seen in the games (i.e. Harry Potter/Naruto/Game of Thrones etc.), write your suggestions down in a review or send me a private message and if I have read or watched the series and I can somehow make it work out in the story, I'll try my best to meet your requests.**


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